Commentary: Brent Scowcroft, the model national security adviser
Few people have had a greater impact on U.S. national security affairs over the last 40 years than Brent Scowcroft, who died last week at age 95. Presidents from Richard Nixon through Barack Obama consulted Scowcroft on many critical foreign policy issues, and he served two of them (Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush) as their national security adviser.
Scowcroft’s influence ranged across many issues, from arms control and nuclear weapons policy to America’s relations with China and the Soviet Union. He played a pivotal role in helping to wind down the Cold War and managing the run-up to the Gulf War.
But his lasting influence was perhaps less on policy than on process. As national security adviser, Scowcroft set the standard for how to balance the dual roles of honest broker among different policy perspectives and presidential adviser on major policy matters. Every one of the 11 women and men who followed in his footsteps have sought to make the “Scowcroft model” their own — with mixed success at best.
Scowcroft perfected the model during his four years as Bush’s national security adviser. But it was based on the wealth of experience he had gained working in and closely observing the White House in the previous two decades.
