International relations are becoming more and more complicated with each passing day. In this fast-changing world, power equations are also changing rapidly. Besides, all countries are undergoing internal economic, social, and political changes. As such, states are at once, and increasingly, exposed to external and internal threats to their sovereignty and well-being.
Security consciousness has grown by leaps and bounds. The “nation-state” has morphed into a “national security state.” Internal and external surveillance has increased. States feel the need to keep up with improved techniques of surveillance. And for the effective handling of perceived security threats, governments feel the need to develop foolproof systems for effective information gathering, information processing and analysis of information. This calls for the cooperation of a multiplicity of agencies and government departments.
For ensuring effective counter-measures against threats, coordinated action is imperative. And to attain these multifarious objectives, governments form a National Security Council (NSC). Many have appointed a National Security Advisor (NSA) with dedicated staff.
Beginnings in the US
The US is a forerunner in the field of security in the democratic world. It was in 1953 that the US realized that ‘national security involved diplomatic, military, intelligence and economic matters. The first NSA became the principal instrument in both the formulation and implementation of US foreign policy. US Presidents have used the National Security Council system to integrate foreign, defence and economic policies to better preserve the country’s security and advance its interests abroad.
But there have been structural modifications of the NSC and NSA systems from time to time, reflecting the management style of the President, changing requirements, and personal predilections, as a document on the US NSC puts it.
Initially, the US National Security Advisors were low-key men but McGeorge Bundy under President Kennedy assumed a high profile as did Henry Kissinger under President Nixon later. Presidents have used the NSC to control and manage competing departments if the departments became more powerful than the NSC. Under President Nixon, NSA Henry Kissinger played a critical role in foreign policy formulation. He engineered the epoch-making opening to China. At other times, the President preferred a more lose system.
Developments in India
In his background paper on the National Security Council in India, Ammar Nainar of the Observer Research Foundation America (ORFA) says that the NSC in India has evolved over time seeing many vicissitudes depending on the circumstances and the personality of the Prime Minister. But Nainar’s assessment is that the little-known NSC eventually became “one of India’s most important national security decision-making institutions.”
“As an apex advisory body headed by the Prime Minister and comprising of the Ministers of Finance, Defense, Home and External Affairs, the NSC was established between December 1998 and April 1999 to conduct long-term planning and integrate tools of statecraft. But in the years since, it has managed to institutionalize important policy and decision-making structures, the latest being the appointment of a Chief of Defense Staff. It also provides an organizational lens to understand the responsibilities of the National Security Adviser (NSA), one of the country’s most important national security officials. Finally, the NSC captures both formal and informal mechanisms for coordination on critical security-related issues within the Indian government,” Nainar says.
Vicissitudes
In 1964, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri established the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, which began playing a significant role in foreign policy-making. A Committee of Secretaries (CoS) was formed to discuss key matters. In 1966, the Policy Planning and Review Committee (PPRC) was established in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) with the participation of the Secretaries of Commerce and Defense, besides the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).
In 1968, the idea of “setting up a National Security Council (NSC) was mooted by civil servant/defence expert K. Subrahmanyam, father of the current Foreign Minister S.Jaishankar. The Cabinet Committee on Defense was designated as the National Security Council and its task was “to formulate national security objectives and integrate foreign, defence, technology, and economic policies.”
In the 1970s, various ad hoc coordinating groups were established, some of which complemented the PPRC under politician-diplomats like D.P. Dhar and G. Parthasarathy, who had direct access to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi replaced this system with small issue-based inter-agency committees, such as the ones on the Sri Lankan civil war and nuclear policy. In 1990, Prime Minister V.P. Singh, set up a National Security Council again to foster an “integrated approach to policy-making as it affects national security”. This was supported by a Strategic Core Group (SCG) headed by the Cabinet Secretary and involving the military chiefs, intelligence heads, and the relevant department secretaries. But the NSC became defunct. It was revived after the 1993 Bombay bomb blasts.
In the mid-1990s, there was a debate on whether there should be a separate NSC or separate committees for specific tasks. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao preferred “specific committees or specific groups of ministers, MPs and even State government representatives ” in place of an integrated, autonomous and standing NSC.
In 1998, when India detonated its second nuclear bomb, Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee felt the need for command and control structures to manage its nuclear deterrence. The need for an NSC at the apex was acutely felt as such an institution would “assuage global concerns about the nuclear tests and demonstrate India’s sense of responsibility” about nuclear weapons use.
In June, a task force recommended the formation of an NSC with its own secretariat and the appointment of a National Security Advisor. On April 16th 1999, a cabinet resolution notified the establishment of an NSC comprising the prime minister and Ministers of Defense, External Affairs, Finance, and Home Affairs plus the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (a now-defunct position). Additionally, a Strategic Policy Group (SPG) was established for inter-agency coordination between relevant secretaries, with a staff to be headed by a National Security Advisor. Since then, the NSC and the NSA play have been playing a key role in formulating India’s foreign policy.
Flawed Sri Lankan System
Sri Lanka has been having a National Security Council since 1999. It comprises the President (who is also Defense Minister), the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Public Security Minister, State Minister of Defense, Secretary to the President; Secretaries to the Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, Public Security, and Treasury; Chief of the Defense Staff, Tri-Service Commanders and the Inspector General of Police. These are statutory members. The Chief of National Intelligence, Director General of State Intelligence Service, Director General of Military Intelligence, Deputy Inspector General of Criminal Investigation Department, Director of Counter Terrorist Investigation Division and the Commandant of Special Task Force participate as appointed members, according to a Defense Ministry note.
The 2019 Eastern Sunday bombings showed serious flaws in the NSC. It was alleged that President Sirisena would not invite Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to NSC meetings and the police IG Pujith Jayasundara was also kept out. It was well known that repeated intelligence warnings from India about the possibility of such bombings were ignored despite the existence of the NSC. A major flaw was that Sri Lanka did not have an institution like the NSA to keep track of evolving situations in a systematic manner and advice the President on a daily basis.
