The National Security Council: in the United States, a small high-level group around the President that talks about war, spies, foreign danger, and other big security choices. The National Security Advisor often leads the staff. You see NSC in news about the White House. It is not the army and not the CIA; it sits above those bodies and tries to pull their advice together. Other countries use the same idea, and sometimes the same English letters — though actually this entry is the American one. Say N-S-C.