Former National Security Council directors David Shimer and Samantha Sutton Take Students Behind the Scenes

On May 1, SIPA scholar David Shimer and Institute of Global Politics (IGP) Associate Director of Policy Samantha Sutton hosted a roundtable, each offering personal reflections on foreign policy careers. Shimer and Sutton each served as National Security Council (NSC) directors, and they provided students with a behind-the-scenes view of life at the White House, demystifying foreign policymaking.

Shimer, an adjunct senior research scholar at SIPA and former NSC director for Ukraine and Eastern Europe, spent four years working for President Joe Biden. Sutton, a former career civil servant with stints at State Department Headquarters, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, and the Pentagon, served in the Biden administration as NSC director for Israel and Palestinian Affairs.

Shimer explained the NSC’s unique structure: “It’s… a very flat organization, where you have direct access to presidential decision-making and guidance,” he said. “There has to be a node in the U.S. Government to pull together all of our activities into a strategy.”

He described starting his days with an “intense” 9 a.m. meeting led by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, followed by a cascade of interagency meetings. The NSC’s role, he emphasized, is strategic and operational; NSC directors identify points of friction within the Executive Branch, then ensure presidential priorities are implemented.

Shimer and Sutton broke down the NSC’s interagency policy-making system, explaining how decisions ascend through committees — from the Sub-Interagency Policy Committee (Sub-IPC), chaired by NSC directors, to the National Security Council, chaired by the President. “Part of the beauty of the process is that it provides a forum to resolve differences,” said Shimer. NSC processes are iterative, and each successive meeting is intended to drive toward the next logical policy for that issue. Successful directors steered the interagency to consensus, forcing departments and agencies to communicate and deconflict policy priorities ahead of meetings.

Both speakers emphasized that NSC directors are more than just staffers. Sutton explained directors write each meeting’s Summary of Conclusions (SOC) and thus have the determining say in articulating interagency priorities, assigning tasks, and outlining next steps.

Students asked Sutton and Shimer about their career trajectories and what advice they’d offer to those starting out. “You should maintain relationships with the people you meet and check in with them when you can,” said Sutton, who noted that “this is very important, because foreign policy is a small community.” Sutton added that thoughtful “relationship management” is more valuable than transactionalism: “Networks can grow, and people will be happy to introduce you to the people that they know.”

Shimer encouraged students to pursue what truly interests them. “Conviction and passion will get you farther than tactical decision-making,” he shared. His decision to pursue Russia at the expense of supposedly “hotter” topics confused some colleagues at the time. But then Russia invaded Ukraine, placing Shimer at the heart of U.S. national security decision-making.

The event closed with thoughts on what makes the NSC unique. “You need to be in the details, but you also need to be able to manage and direct everyone, to see things at the ten thousand foot level,” emphasized Sutton. This is what makes the NSC an engine for positive change.