Presidential Aides

Since the National Security Council first directed interagency “coordination” of the US government’s foreign information policies in 1947, presidents and their aides have tried repeatedly to create effective coordinating structures, usually when motivated by war and crises. This chapter examines different meanings of coordination and the strengths and limitations of two coordination models. Five cases illustrate a State Department model. Six cases portray an NSC model generally preferred by presidents who, frustrated by bureaucratic infighting, seek to harmonize civilian and military communication at the White House level. Presidential aides constitute a public diplomacy practitioner community, even though they lack characteristics of career services. Failure to create a durable coordination structure reflects persistence in willing the ends of interagency coordination but not the means.