The following is a paragraph from the executive summary of the NRC Crypto policy paper: "Cryptography's Role in Securing the Information Society". The conduct of the debate regarding national cryptography policy has been complicated because a number of participants have often invoked classified information that cannot be made public. However, the cleared members of the National Research Council's Committee to Study National Cryptography Policy (13 of the 16 committee members) concluded that *the debate over national cryptography policy can be carried out in a reasonable manner on an unclassified basis*. Classified material is often important to operational matters in specific cases, but it is neither essential to the big picture of why cryptography policy is the way it is nor required for the general outline of how technology will and policy should evolve in the future.