Presidential Directives and
Executive Orders
The National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum for Presidential consideration of foreign policy issues and national security matters. Persuant to policy review directives, the NSC gathers facts and views of appropriate Government agencies, conducts analyses, determines alternatives, and presents to the President policy choices for decision. The President's decisions are announced by decision directives.
Related Resources
- Presidential Emergency Action Documents, from the Brennan Center for Justice
- Presidential Directives Declassified in Full as of July 2021 (via ISOO)
- The National Security Council: A Legal History of the President's Most Powerful Advisers by Cody M. Brown, Project on National Security Reform, December 2008
- Presidential Directives: Background and Overview by Harold C. Relyea, Congressional Research Service
- Legal Effectiveness of A Presidential Directive, as Compared to an Executive Order, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, January 29, 2000
- National Security: The Use of Presidential Directives to Make and Implement U.S. Policy, General Accounting Office report NSIAD-92-72, January 1992
- History of the National Security Council 1947-1997
State Department Historian - August 1997
- Presidential Directives on National Security from Truman to Clinton from the National Security Archive
- Foreign Relations of the United States Volumes Online
https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/direct.htm
Created by John Pike
Maintained by Steven Aftergood