The Evolving Nerve Center: Core Roles and Responsibilities of the White House Situation Room.

Abstract

The Situation Room was established to be a nerve center of information for the President; a single touch point for the President to access unbiased apolitical information to aid in their decision-making. The need for a centralized information center located in the White House began at the dawn of the information age, with roots dating back to the Spanish-American War in the late 19th century. From its early history, what would come to be known as the Situation Room had a set of core responsibilities. Primarily, these core responsibilities were focused on keeping the President informed and allowing him to communicate with key members of the U.S. government. And while the role of the Situation Room has evolved under each Administration, serving different needs based on the personality and preferences of the President, these core responsibilities have largely remained intact. Understanding how the President utilized the Situation Room is telling of their decision-making process and how their overall Office of the President functioned. Yet, there is a gap in our current knowledge of the role of the Situation Room with most of our understanding coming from pre-September 11th. Beyond personal preferences, it is not fully understood if September 11th altered any of the Situation Room’s core responsibilities. It is reasonable to believe that the Situation Room’s role has evolved and adapted since September 11th, but the extent to which has not been fully researched. This thesis begins by establishing what the core responsibilities of the Situation Room are by examining its early history and founding. This leads directly into the exploration of each successive administration to demonstrate that while personal preferences were applied, the core roles largely remained intact. Furthermore, through such an examination, it will become evident that certain events or crises slightly altered one or more of the core responsibilities as well as adding a third core role. This thesis then examines the Situation Room on September 11th, 2001. Specific focus is paid to what roles the Situation Room played during the most significant crisis of the 21st century and what significant challenges they faced. From this examination, and with the historical context of previous administrations, we extrapolate that September 11th caused a major shift to the Situation Room in terms of composition and cemented a fourth core role.