Vice Presidents Role in the National Security Council (Essay Sample)

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The Vice Presidents Role in the National Security Council
The National Security Act established the National Security Council (NSC) in 1947. The council is the president’s forum responsible for the national security and matters of foreign policy. The president chairs the NSC and the function of the council is to advise and assist the president in coordinating policies in certain government agencies (Jackson, p. 23). The people who attend the council include the vice president, the state secretary, and secretary of defense among others.
The role of the vice president is to support the president’s activities in matter related to national security. The vice president engages in activities like diplomacy and negotiating for the country globally. In addition, the vice president is responsible for the protection of the environmental policies on a global basis. Moreover, the VP is expected to attend any principle meetings in regards to national security. The VP is also expected to talk about any urgent matter that is related to national security and if there are any immediate actions that should be taken then the VP should point them out (Inderfurth, p.35).
The vice president is responsible for residing over meetings of national security when the president is absent. Moreover, the vice president assumes the duties of the president on matters of national security when the office becomes unoccupied. When a president is temporarily incapacitated, then it is the duty of the vice president to chair the National Security Council. Additionally, the vice president ensures that the national intelligence does not interfere with the military chain of command and also oversees the intelligence budget and ensures that the money is spent wisely. In addition, the VP is responsible for making sure the country is safe from enemies and whenever terrorists come to the country, they produce the basic justification for going to war. However, in 2004, there was an article by the U.S news & World Report, which claimed that the unprecedented role of the Vice president on the N.S.C made it become dysfunctional. In addition, some of the senior officials of the United States told the magazine that it was the most dysfunctional role that ever existed and it was because of the then vice president Dick Cheney. Consequently, the Vice President has broad powers and is the defense secretary and chief of staff to the president. They are also responsible for making policies in regards to the National Security Council (Rothkopf, p. 40).
In conclusion, the Vice Presi...