Role
The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs is appointed by the President without confirmation by the United States Senate. However, the APNSA is a staff position in the Executive Office of the President and does not have line authority over either the Department of State or the Department of Defense, but is able, as a consequence thereof, to offer advice to the President - unlike the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense who are senate-confirmed officials with line authority over their departments - independently of the vested interests of the large bureaucracies and clientele of those departments. The influence and role of the National Security Advisor varies from administration to administration and depends heavily on the qualities of the person appointed to the position.
In times of crisis, the National Security Advisor operates from the White House Situation Room, updating the President on the latest events of a crisis.
Read more about this topic: National Security Advisor (United States)
Famous quotes containing the word role:
“To win by strategy is no less the role of a general than to win by arms.”
—Julius Caesar [Gaius Julius Caesar] (100–44 B.C.)
“Whatever we’re doing, whoever we are, it isn’t enough. . . . Little wonder we have trouble finding role models to guide us through these shoals. No one less than God Herself could be all the things we’d like to be to all the people we’d like to feel approval from.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“A few [women] warrant our attention not because they have the answer but because they have rejected the mentality that insists there must be one answer. What makes them role models is not how much or how little they work, how many or how few hats they wear, but rather how well they understand, and accept, that for all rewards there will be commensurate sacrifice; for all gains, some loss; for any pleasure, some pain.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)