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The National Defense Meeting was established in 1954 and later renamed the National Security Council (NSC). It has gone through three phases: the Marshall Law phase, the pre-legalization phase, and the current phase where it is a legal organization under the ROC Constitution. After its legalization, the NSC gradually became an advisory body that maps out national security policy directions for the President’s reference, rather than being an all-powerful decision-making organ in charge of a whole range of agendas as it used to be. The NSC has been in the process of downsizing and accordingly has fewer functions. With its legalization, the NSC is defined as an advisory body that offers advice to the President in formulating national security policy directions. This function, however, was not fully fulfilled due to the lack of proper mechanisms and researchers.
On June 25, 2003, the amendment to the NSC Bill was passed. The revised NSC Bill clearly defines the parameters of national security and highlights the NSC’s advisory role. With the amendment, researchers have been introduced into the NSC and various research groups set up to help top officials make decisions. Nevertheless, the revised NSC Bill has been in place for such a short period of time that we don’t know whether the NSC’s organization and functions can produce the best results. This dissertation will look into different aspects of the NSC and make tentative suggestions as to how to expand the category of national security, strengthen the role and function of researchers, improve coordination between the NSC and other state organs (including intelligence bodies), establish contingency mechanisms, etc, so that the NSC is able to fulfill its function as an advisory body offering the President advice in terms of decision-making in national defense, foreign affairs, cross-strait relations and contingencies.
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