EP 267 White House Warriors Have Taken Over Foreign Policy: Is That a Good Thing?

 They are located on the third floor of the Executive Office Building
in Washington, D.C.  Having grown over the years from about a dozen
people to hundreds today, when they were first empowered by President
Harry Truman to take over a major role in developing foreign policy ,
the National Security Council(NSC) has its fingerprints over all aspects
of war and peace.  And, yet, very few Americans understand what they do
and Congress has very little interaction with members of the NSC.  It’s
one of the key reasons we can look to the growing power of the Imperial
Presidency and question whether this amassing of power in the White
House has resulted in better, or worse, policies and outcomes. John
Gans, PhD. is the director of communications and research at Perry World
House, the University of Pennsylvania’s global policy institute and was
a former speechwriter at the Pentagon and is the author of ‘White House
Warriors’.  In this book he explores how the NSC transformed the
American way of war.  No matter the Administration, or the party of the
president, the concentration of power in a few hands continues.  And
considering some of the foreign policy debacles that have ensued in this
period, we discuss whether this approach is really working and what we
can do to change it.

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