{"id":54203,"date":"2018-10-12T11:31:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T16:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/?p=54203"},"modified":"2018-11-08T14:29:43","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T19:29:43","slug":"answering-the-call","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2018\/answering-the-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering the Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet Sean Oehlbert (\u201998), former National Security Council director of nuclear nonproliferation.<\/h2>\n
\"Sean
Photo by Mary F. Calvert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a warm Saturday evening and Sean Oehlbert (\u201998) is hosting a backyard barbecue with colleagues from work and their families. The adults are finishing dinner and watching the kids run around when Oehlbert\u2019s phone rings, bringing the party to an abrupt end.<\/p>\n

The call is from the White House Communications Office. North Korea has test-launched another missile. Oehlbert, director of nuclear nonproliferation for the National Security Council (NSC), removes himself from the barbecue and gets to work. The president\u2019s senior staff will want detailed briefings tonight, and Oehlbert\u2014the White House\u2019s point per\u00adson for many nuclear matters\u2014needs to prepare for the meetings.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the movement and testing of nuclear weapons, few people know more than Oehlbert, which is why the White House wants him on hand on nights like this.<\/p>\n

Prior to joining the White House staff, Oehlbert spent nearly two de\u00adcades working for the National Nuclear Security Administration within the US Department of Energy. In July 2016, he was serving as a senior policy advisor to the deputy secretary of energy when the Obama administration asked him to take a temporary assignment at the NSC. Oehl\u00adbert agreed and held the position until December 2017, when he returned to the Department of Energy to serve as a policy director there.<\/p>\n

Typically, Oehlbert says, detailees like him (government agency employees on loan to the White House) serve in NSC policy positions for a year and then return to their home agencies. The jobs are pro\u00adfessional, not political, so it\u2019s not unusual for them to span more than one admin\u00adistration. Before Oehlbert\u2019s stint on the NSC was up, the new Trump administra\u00adtion asked if he would stay a second year. \u201cI told them I\u2019d give them an additional six months,\u201d he says, \u201cjust because I do miss my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

NSC jobs are notoriously demand\u00ading. During his 18 months working in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building\u2014an elegant granite structure that sits on the White House grounds\u2014Oehlbert usually left for work before his wife and two school-age children were awake and returned after they\u2019d gone to bed. \u201cAnd if you get a call from the Situation Room on a Saturday night because something has happened,\u201d he says, \u201cyou drop everything and you go in.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the NSC job was a strain on his family, Oehlbert says, \u201cyou keep in mind that you\u2019re doing this because you want to see the country\u2019s security enhanced, to see the goals we have as a nation achieved. You\u2019re mindful of the fact that you\u2019re mak\u00ading personal sacrifices for a greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""AndCongress established the National Security Council in 1947\u2014soon after World War II\u2014to help the president rec\u00adoncile diplomatic and military concerns when making foreign-policy decisions. The NSC originally included just the president, the secretary of state, and the secretary of defense, but it has grown steadily in size and complexity ever since. According to a Washington Post <\/em>analysis, the NSC included about 25 people under President Jimmy Carter, 50 under George H. W. Bush, 200 under George W. Bush, and well over 400 under Barack Obama. The NSC now consists of a Principals Com\u00admittee, a Deputies Committee, and a num\u00adber of Policy Coordinating Committees, as well as IT and administrative personnel.<\/p>\n

The basic role of today\u2019s NSC is to help presidents make national-security decisions by providing them with well- researched policy options. NSC staff are then responsible for working with govern\u00adment departments and agencies to imple\u00adment White House decisions.<\/p>\n

Day to day, says Oehlbert, his NSC job involved \u201ca lot of writing, a lot of running meetings, and a lot of staffing.\u201d By \u201cstaff\u00ading,\u201d he means attending any high-level meetings where his expertise might be needed. The writing he did\u2014often under intense deadlines\u2014included position papers, memorandums for decision, and other documents intended to help White House leaders make complex decisions. The documents laid out policy options and their pros and cons, based on Oehlbert\u2019s own expertise and his consultations with a variety of government offices. Much of Oehlbert\u2019s NSC work centered on international nuclear nonproliferation treaties and regimes, such as reviewing the United States\u2019 policies pertaining to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and its limited support of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and overseeing negotiations of civil nuclear cooperation agreements (the bilateral agreements that must be in place before US companies can export nuclear equipment or materials).<\/p>\n

While succeeding at the NSC requires self-reliance and confidence in your expertise, says Oehlbert, \u201cit\u2019s also vitally important to be humble.\u201d NSC staffers are often pulled into high-level meetings and asked pointed questions. In those situations, Oehlbert says, \u201cSenior officials are expecting you to provide the answer. That\u2019s why you\u2019re there. But if you don\u2019t know the answer, it\u2019s best to say \u2018I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll get back to you.\u2019 It\u2019s a hard thing to say because you want to be viewed as the expert, perfectly placed and perfectly prepared. But it\u2019s going to happen, and you need to be humble about it,\u201d he says. The Situation Room is no place for bluffing.<\/p>\n

Effective NSC staffers also excel at working in teams, Oehlbert says, because no NSC issue is self-contained. When his office\u2014the Weapons of Mass Destruction Office\u2014worked on Iran-related issues, they worked closely with the Middle East Office. For issues related to India or Pakistan, they consulted colleagues in the South Asia Office. \u201cYou have to be able to work collaboratively,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause the different perspective others bring to the issue will only help create better policy.\u201d It\u2019s one of the many lessons from law school that he continues to apply today, he says.<\/p>\n

Oehlbert\u2019s interest in nuclear weapons began during his childhood in the 1980s. \u201cI grew up at the height of the Cold War, in the Reagan administration, and I remem\u00adber all of the worries that we were going to have a nuclear war with the Russians,\u201d he says. \u201cFor whatever reason, I was always fascinated by these types of issues, and I was always fascinated by Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate majoring in political science, Oehlbert took courses in Russian politics, Russian history, and the Russian language. At BU Law, he focused on international relations and interna\u00adtional law. After graduation, he landed a job working at the Department of Energy\u2019s Los Alamos National Laboratory, assisting in the negotiation of civil nuclear coopera\u00adtion agreements with foreign partners. During his first year on the job, he was thrilled to take an assignment at the US embassy in Moscow.<\/p>\n

Oehlbert has since built a solid career on what he calls \u201cthe power of yes\u201d\u2014the power of accepting any challenge or oppor\u00adtunity that comes his way. \u201cSometimes the easier path is to say no, but if you say yes, you\u2019re going to do things that you didn\u2019t think you had the ability to do, and you\u2019re going to learn and grow,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s been my governing philosophy. If someone asks you to do something, even if it\u2019s not something you think you can do, just try to do it. Say yes. Don\u2019t say no. That\u2019s how I wound up sitting in the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the pressure and long hours, Oehlbert never regretted saying \u201cyes\u201d to the NSC. The role provided an unparalleled opportunity to serve his country and invaluable career experience. His temporary seat at the White House, Oehlbert says, provided fresh perspective on his longtime work, and he\u2019s now using that perspective for the good of his home department and the American taxpayer. \u201cI am completely aware of the unique opportunity I\u2019ve been presented,\u201d Oehlbert says of his time at the NSC, \u201cand am honored to have served.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reported by Corinne Steinbrenner (COM’06)<\/h6>\n
This feature originally appeared in\u00a0<\/span><\/em>The Record, BU Law\u2019s alumni magazine.\u00a0<\/span>Read the full issue here.<\/a><\/em><\/h5>\n

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