Events | 2020

On Tuesday, December 1st, the Clements Center for National Security hosted a discussion on “Prospects for Civil-Military Relations During a Biden-Harris Administration.” We heard from Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and former Director for Defense Strategy and Requirement, National Security Council, Peter Feaver, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University and former Special Advisor for Strategic Planning, National Security Council, and Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, USA (Ret.) is a Visiting Professor of Strategic Studies and Senior Fellow at the Merrill Center in the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Jim Golby, Clements Center Senior Fellow, former Army Senior Strategist and former Special Adviser to the Vice President, moderated this discussion. 

On Wednesday, November 18, the Clements Center will be hosting Robert Zoellick, Chairman of AllianceBernstein and former president of the World Bank, for a virtual book talk on his recently released book America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy. Please join us from 12:15 – 1:30 pm CST. Registration begins at 12:00 pm.

On Thursday, October 29, the Clements Center for National Security hosted Lt. General H.R. McMaster, U.S. Army, ret., Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and former National Security Advisor, for a virtual book talk on his recently released book Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World. 

On Monday, October 26, The University of Texas at Austin’s Intelligence Studies Project, Clements Center for National Security, and Strauss Center for International Security and Law hosted former CIA Director John Brennan for a virtual book talk on his recently released book, Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, At Home and Abroad. Director Brennan was joined in a conversation on national security with former UT Chancellor and Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, Adm. William McRaven. 

On Monday, October 19, the Clements Center for National Security and The Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center hosted David A. French, Senior Editor of The Dispatch and formerly President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and Senior Counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, and University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell, on French’s recently published Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. French focused on the importance of free speech and pluralism to America’s strength, and also discuss how division at home threatens our national security abroad. This event was part of UT’s participation in national Free Speech Week.

On Thursday, October 15, the Clements Center for National Security and Strauss Center for International Security and Law hosted Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, and Susan B. Glasser, staff writer at The New Yorker, for a virtual book talk on their recently released biography on James Baker, The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III. 

On Thursday, October 8, the Clements Center for National Security and the University of Texas History Department hosted Michael Kimmage, Professor and Department Chair, Department of History at The Catholic University of America for a virtual talk  on his recently published book The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy. 

On Tuesday, October 6, the Clements Center for National Security, the Stimson Center and Stimson’s 38 North program, and the Korean Defense Veterans Association (KDVA) hosted “It’s Not Just Over There: The American Commitment to the Korean Peninsula.” Featured speakers included General (Ret.) Vincent K. Brooks, President, Korea Defense Veterans Association (KDVA) and Clements Center Distinguished Senior Fellow, and Dr. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT-Austin and Clements Center Senior Fellow.

On Thursday, October 1, 2020, the Clements Center for National Security and Strauss Center for International Security and Law welcomed back Dr. Julie Schafer for a second conversation on the tough decisions governments face in responding to pandemics.

On Tuesday, September 29, the Clements Center’s own Will Inboden, Executive Director, and Jim Golby, Senior Fellow, hosted a virtual event “November Elections: The Candidates on American Foreign Policy” at 12:15 pm CDT. 

The Clements Center for National Security welcomed Dr. Evelyn N. Farkas, President of Farkas Global Strategies and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, for a virtual event on “Global Politics in the Era of Trump” on Thursday, September 24 from 12:15 – 1:30 pm CDT. 

On Tuesday, September 15, the Clements Center for National Security hosted Rebeccah Heinrichs, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, for a virtual event on “Deterring War with Major Powers” from 12:15 – 1:30 pm CDT.

On Friday, March 6th, the Alexander Hamilton Society – Austin Chapter will host Richard Fontaine, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security, for a talk on “Interventionism vs. Isolationism: Is There A Middle Ground?” at the University of Texas at Austin. The Clements Center for National Security is co-sponsoring this event.

On Thursday, March 5, the Clements Center will host an information session on our Undergraduate Fellowship in National Security program. This information session will go over the details of the program, application process, and student experience. All current UT undergraduate students – regardless of major – are welcome to attend and ask questions about the program.  

On Wednesday, March 4th, the Clements Center will host Brigadier General (Ret.) Kimberly Field, Professor of the Practice and Executive Director of the Albritton Center for Grand Strategy at Texas A&M University, for a talk on “Managing National Strategy in an International Coalition” at the University of Texas.

On Wednesday, February 26th, 2020, the Clements Center and Strauss Center welcomed Dr. Julie Schafer for a discussion on governmental responses to pandemics. Dr. Schafer’s talk took place in the LBJ School’s Bass Lecture Hall at 12:15 pm, and was moderated by Dr. Michele Malvesti, Director’s Advisory Board Member for the National Counterterrorism Center.

On Tuesday, February 25, the Clements Center will host James Mann, European and Eurasian Studies Program Scholar-in-Residence, for a talk on his upcoming book The Great Rift: Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and the Broken Friendship That Defined an Era at the University of Texas at Austin.

On February 18, the Clements Center will host Kenneth Pollack, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), for a talk on his recently published book, Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness as part of our Focus on the Middle East Series at the University of Texas at Austin.

On Thursday, February 13, the Intelligence Studies Project, Clements Center for National Security and Strauss Center for International Security and Law will host Joseph Gartin, Former Dean of CIA’s Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis, for a talk on “The Future of Intelligence Analysis” at the University of Texas.

On February 12, 2020, the Clements and Strauss Centers will host Ambassador Dennis Ross, William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and former special assistant to President Barack Obama, for a talk on his recently published book, Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny at the University of Texas at Austin as part of our Focus on the Middle East Series.

On February 6, 2020, the Clements Center for National Security, the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, the Intelligence Studies Project, and the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin in partnership with the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins; the Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy; and the Texas A&M Albritton Center for Grand Strategy, hosted a conference on “Restraint and National Security.” The conference explored the intent, the causes, and the consequences of restraint in foreign engagement in the course of American history. 

On February 4, the Clements Center for National Security, Strauss Center for International Security and Law and the Intelligence Studies Project will host Admiral Chris Grady, Commander, United States Fleet Forces Command, for a talk on “Great Power Competition: A Maritime Century” at the University of Texas.

On January 30, the Clements Center For National Security and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies will host Alan McPherson, Professor of History and Director of Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University, for a talk on “The Long Struggle between Fascism and Human Rights in Latin America” at the University of Texas at Austin.