National Security Council vacuum sparks crisis fears

Washington (CNN)The vacant spot atop the National Security Council is triggering anxiety that the White House is ill-prepared to face a sudden foreign policy crisis amid fresh concern about politics at play in the Situation Room.

President Donald Trump is expected to interview several candidates this weekend to replace Michael Flynn, the short-tenured national security adviser who was asked to resign after misleading the vice president about his pre-inauguration calls with the Russian ambassador.

Trump tweeted Friday that he has four people in mind, including Gen. Keith Kellogg, who stepped in to the job on a temporary basis when Flynn quit. Other names are also being floated, though two potential candidates -- former Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal and former CIA Director David Petraeus -- are no longer in the mix, sources told CNN Friday night.

And the President will meet over the next few days in Florida with former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton and Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, a senior administration official said. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told CNN in an interview that Bolton would make a "very, very, strong" national security adviser because he understands the threat from "radical Islamic terrorism."
But the sense of limbo is causing concern among lawmakers and foreign policy experts who understand how the National Security Council corrals rival foreign policy power centers in the government and its crucial role at a time of crisis.
"There is no doubt after the departure of Flynn and everything that led up to it that the NSC is in a little bit of chaos," Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois told CNN Friday. GOP Sen. John McCain also questioned the state of
White House foreign policy earlier in the week.

Every presidency brings change and uncertainty to American foreign policy. But Trump's arrival in the White House has been especially disorientating for US allies, since he adopted positions on the campaign trail -- for example, questioning the value of US alliances in Europe and Asia that have underpinned post-World War II peace -- that appeared to threaten wholesale upheaval in the international system. Adding personnel uncertainties to that mix is underscoring the sense of instability that Trump has brought international relations.

As they await their new boss, national security staffers are hunkering down and forging ahead with their work.
One senior administration official strongly refuted claims that the NSC was in chaos, arguing that it is functioning exactly as it should be, despite Flynn's departure, and is primed for any crisis that would arise.

"It is dead wrong," said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation. "The NSC was instrumental in the rollout of the Venezuela drug kingpin designation, the NSC arranged a meeting with Venezuelan dissidents with the President. The NSC is instrumental in setting up, prepping and briefing all the President's foreign leader calls of which there are a couple every day."
"Everyone is carrying on as normal," the official said, pointing to a string of successful meetings between Trump and foreign leaders in recent weeks.

Harward's no-show prolonged the agony for upper echelon NSC staffers who were brought in with Flynn and who could be exposed without him.

But Trump's top aides have told candidates for the job that most of the top staffers who came in with Flynn will stay -- in a bid to avoid disarray.
"We are in an unprecedented situation," the official said. "Somebody coming in is going to have to understand it is not going to be the way it would have been had they been picked November 10 and had a whole transition to pick their staff."

The visits of British Prime Minister Theresa May, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, however, sent reassuring signals to US allies.
One senior member of the one of the delegations said that Trump and those around him had pleasantly surprised their visitors with evidence that they were beginning to understand the complexity of foreign policy and managing alliances, despite their inexperience.

Internal tensions

Normally, a vacancy for a national security adviser would spark intense jockeying for position throughout the national security establishment in Washington -- given the job's proximity to the President and central role as the White House's foreign policy first responder.
And Trump's failure to find a quick replacement for Flynn is shining a spotlight on the internal tensions in his administration.


http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/politics/donald-trump-nsc-foreign-policy/index.html

Last edited by Goose (2/18/2017 7:25 am)