[Presidential Decision Directives - PDD]

Foreign Affairs Reorganization
Presidential Decision Directive PDD 65
23 June 1998

On 30 December 1998 President Clinton sent to the Congress a plan and report on reorganization of the foreign affairs agencies, pursuant to the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. The Act provides authority to reorganize the foreign affairs agencies and is based on the plan announced by the President on April 18, 1997. The reorganization plan merged arms control and nonproliferation, public diplomacy, and sustainable development where they belong into the Department of State. The plan preserved the special missions of the foreign affairs agencies, and over time, integration will yield operating efficiencies as well as improve the quality of activities.

Presidential Decision Directive 65, dated June 23, 1998, amends Presidential Decision Directive/NSC-2, dated January 20, 1993, specifying that the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs/Senior Advisor to the President and the Secretary of State for Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament shall, at the discretion of the President, (1) be invited to attend all NSC meetings concerning matters pertaining to arms control, proliferation, or disarmament and (2) be invited to attend all NSC/PC and DC meeting [sic] concerning the same issues. It also provides that foreign policy and proliferation-related issues should be chaired at the Assistant Secretary level by the Department of State.

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