A behind-the-scenes look at the most powerful committee in the history of the world, the small group of men and women who work, often in secret, within the White House to make the most fateful decisions of our time Never before, in the history of mankind, have so few had so much power over so many. The people at the top of the American national security establishment - the President and his principal advisors who form the core team at the helm of the National Security Council - are without question the most powerful committee in the history of the world. Yet, in many respects, they are among the least understood. As deputy undersecretary of commerce, David Rothkopf served on the NSC and knows personally many of its key players of the last twenty-five years. In Running the World, he pulls back the curtain on this shadowy world to explore its inner workings, its people, their relationships, their contributions and the occasions when they have gone wrong. He traces the group's evolution from the final days of the Second World War to the post-Cold War realities of global terror - exploring its triumphs, its human dramas and most recently, what many consider to be its break-down at a time when we needed it most. Drawing on an extraordinary series of insider interviews with policy makers including Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, senior officials of the Bush Administration and over 300 other, the book offers unprecedented insights into what must change if America is to maintain its worldwide leadership in the decades ahead.