Joseph Ledford

Joseph Ledford is an Assistant Professor of Security Studies and Director of Research at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Griffin Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A historian of U.S. foreign relations, his research examines the individuals and institutions responsible for the exercise of American power in the world, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, and the domestic politics of foreign policy, broadly construed. Other interests include the uses and abuses of history in policy-making.

Ledford is the co-editor of History’s Dead-Hand Grip: Politics, Statecraft, and “Lessons” of the Past (2026) and author of a forthcoming book on the Iran-Contra affair and Ronald Reagan’s presidency. In addition to his historical work, Ledford frequently provides analysis and commentary on U.S. foreign policy and national security issues for popular and policy outlets.

Ledford received his PhD in history from the University of California, Berkeley, and held the America in the World Consortium Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Prior to joining UT-Austin, he was a Hoover Fellow and the Assistant Director of the Hoover History Lab at the Hoover Institution, where he also served as the Vice Chair of the Applied History Working Group.