For a good background on the national security interagency process and the National Security Council’s development and use over the course of the last 5+ decades, we recommend the following books, studies, and articles:

Fateful Decisions: Inside the National Security Council. Karl F. Inderfurth and Loch K. Johnson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power. David J. Rothkopf. New York: PublicAffairs, 2005.

Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC. Amy B. Zegart. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.

The President and the Management of National Security: A Report by the Institute for Defense Analyses. Clark, Keith and Legere, Laurence (eds.). New York: Praeger 1969.

“Beyond Goldwater-Nichols: U.S. Government and Defense Reform for a New Strategic Era: Phase 1 Report.” Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). 2004. Located at:http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/bgn_ph1_report.pdf.

“Beyond Goldwater-Nichols: U.S. Government and Defense Reform for a New Strategic Era: Phase 2 Report.” Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). 2005. Located at:http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/bgn_ph2_report.pdf.

“The United States Commission on National Security/21st Century (The Hart/Rudman Commission) Phase 3 report.”

“Report of the Working Group on Foreign Policy Infrastructure and Global Institutions.” The Princeton Project on National Security. (Fall 2006). Located at:http://www.wws.princeton.edu/ppns/conferences/reports/fall/FPIGI.pdf.

"Managing for Results: Barriers to Interagency Coordination.” United States General Accounting Office. Report to the Hon. Fred Thompson, Chairman, Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate (March 2000). 

“Federal Interagency Coordinative Mechanisms: Varied Types and Numerous Devices.” Frederick Kaiser. Congressional Research Service (Updated July 2002).

“Rethinking the Interagency System.” Michael Donley. Hicks & Associates, Inc. 2005. Located at:http://www.ndu.edu/ITEA/index.cfm?method=main.itemlist&item=7B&resource=1.

“Rethinking the Interagency System: Part Two.” Michael Donley. 2005.  Donley, Michael. Hicks & Associates, Inc. 2005. Located at: http://www.hicksandassociates.com/reports/HAI-occasional-paper-2.pdf.

 

"Solving the Interagency Puzzle." Sunil Desai. Policy Review. Feb/Mar 2005 (129) 57.

"In Search of Harmony: Orchestrating the ‘Interagency’ for the Long War." Michele A. Flournoy and Shawn Brimley. Armed Forces Journal. July 2006. Located at:http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/07/1857934/.

“Reconstructing the Interagency Process After Iraq." Donald Dreschler. Journal of Strategic Studies. 28.1. Feb. 2005.

Representative Geoff Davis's Remarks at the Dynamics of Interagency Reform Conference on May 8, 2008.