Securing the State and its Citizens

National Security Councils from Around the World

Paul O'Neill

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780755642007
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780755642038
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Global Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The global security situation is challenging and constantly changing. Responding to threats requires the effective coordination of the various levers of national power. These must now go beyond the traditional diplomatic, information, military and economic levers, to involve other, non-security agencies, including those responsible for the environment, health, education and industry.

Through a uniquely extensive study of countries from across the world, this book considers how nations have developed bespoke coordination mechanisms to the unique threats they face, and how these mechanisms have had to evolve as the threats change. It covers nations for whom the system is well established (e.g. the US in 1947) and other countries whose arrangements are more recent, such as the UK (2010). Where the National Security Councils have existed for longest, the case studies highlight how they have transformed as the national understanding of security has changed, typically to reflect a broadening. Consequently, while there are no universal solutions, the comparative approach taken in this book identifies enduring principles for shaping the creation or reform of national security coordination fit for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 National security structures in Africa
• 2 Argentina and the long quest for a National Security Council
• 3 National security in Canada
• 4 Colombia’s National Security Council and the fluid architecture for presidential counselling
• 5 Centralized decision-making in France: The non-permanent Defence and National Security Council
• 6 A National Security Council: Georgia’s historic challenge to get it right
• 7 Ghana’s National Security Council: Negotiating institutional and political decision-making processes
• 8 India’s National Security Council: Addressing a strategic gap
• 9 Iraq’s National Security Council: From Repression to Inclusive Security
• 10 Israel’s National Security Staff comes of age1
• 11 Japan’s National Security Council since 2013: The Abe and Suga administrations
• 12 Kenya’s National Security Council: Balancing democratic control and executive power
• 13 New Zealand: Small but integrated
• 14 Disjointed security: Assessing Norway’s national security sector
• 15 South Africa: In search of both security and process
• 16 The National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine: Responding to state aggression
• 17 The British National Security Council: It takes a village
• 18 Washington’s ‘Keepers of the Keys’
• 19 Case study analysis
• 20 The orchestration of National Security Systems: The NSC as conductor
• Afterword
• Author biographies
• Selected further reading
• Endorsements
• Index