Press | History

Jackson and a team of scholars review the recently published “Suez Deconstructed” by Philip Zelikow and the late Ernest May to determine what lessons the Suez Canal crisis holds for today’s policymakers.

The University of Texas at Austin’s Intelligence Studies Project (ISP) hosted its fifth annual Intelligence Studies Project Symposium. This year’s Symposium “Intelligence in Transition” featured a keynote address by the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Susan Gordon. This event is co-sponsored by the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law, the Clements Center for National Security, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

In an op-ed for CNN, Dr. Inboden explores the history of NATO to offer a perspective on the unique value of the alliance. 

Dr. Evans and coauthor A. Bradley Potter challenge the conventional narrative on the U.S. withdrawal from Lebanon in “When Do Leaders Change Course? Theories of Success and the American Withdrawal from Beirut, 1983-84”.

Aaron O’Connell, Associate Professor of U.S. Military History at UT-Austin, sits down with Charles Edel, Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre, to discuss his new book co-written with Hal Brands, The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order for the Horns of a Dilemma Podcast.

William Hitchcock, the William W. Corcoran professor of history at the University of Virginia, discusses President Dwight Eisenhower and America’s role in the world in the 1950s and its enduring relevance today. 

Congratulations to the Clements Center for National Security’s Predoctoral Fellow Mary Elizabeth Walters who will be joining the History Department at Kansas State University as an Assistant Professor in August, 2019. Her research examines peace operations, military culture, and civil-military relations broadly conceived. Walters is completing her dissertation on the 1999 Kosovo Refugee Crisis at the University…

Taylor examines the Battle of Zama in 202, which ended the Second Punic War (218 – 201) between Rome and Carthage.

Today we remember the 40th anniversary of Bill Clements’ historic inauguration as the 42nd Governor of Texas. On January 16, 1979, Bill Clements took the oath of office and assumed governorship over the State of Texas. During the course of his two nonconsecutive terms as governor, the former Deputy Secretary of Defense and oil company executive successfully…

Dr. Jackson examines American policy toward Israel’s nuclear program during the 1960s to determine how nonproliferation goals are prioritized in US foreign policy. 

Dr. Gavin explores the purpose and consequences of nuclear weapons as new geopolitical and technological developments reignite the debate over their critical role in shaping American grand strategy.

The next installment of Horns a Dilemma is National Security Forum’s keynote address by Sen. Ben Sasse. The senator was introduced by Admiral Bobby Inman, Centennial Chair in National Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. 

Gventer warns of a potential “Space Pearl Harbor” if the U.S. does not adequately defend its space capabilities and satellite systems which enable American military superiority. 

From the Clements and Strauss Center’s fifth annual Texas National Security Forum. Lorinc Redei of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, moderated a discussion on World Order with Antony Blinken, former Deputy Secretary of State, Eric Edelman, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and Kristen Silverberg, former Ambassador to the European Union.

Arne Westad, the S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations at Harvard University, discusses the Cold War roots of today’s geopolitical trends – specifically, the competition between the United States, Russia, and China for Horns of a Dilemma.

Sam Kleiner, author of the new book The Flying Tigers, tells the story behind the American pilots who were secretly recruited to defend the nation’s desperate Chinese allies before Pearl Harbor for Horns of a Dilemma. 

Gventer provides historical insights to address the questionable suitability of the American system of geographical combatant commands in meeting the nation’s current and future security challenges. 

On Friday, November 30, the Clements Center, Strauss Center, and Intelligence Studies Project convened senior policymakers to discuss “The Return of Great Power Competition” at the fifth annual Texas National Security Forum.

Dr. Lawrence authors a review of “Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy”,  the latest book from famed British journalist and war historian Sir Max Hastings.

In yesterday’s Monkey Cage, Eisenman offers analysis on China’s Reform and Opening Up policies supported by his own research on the political economy of China’s development.

“The War of the Pacific, Technology and U.S. Naval Development: An International History of Regional War” appears in the October 2018 edition of The Journal of Military History. EBSCO access is required to view. 

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Joshua Shifrinson, Assistant Professor of International Relations with the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, gives a talk on his recently released book, Rising Titans, Falling Giants: How Great Powers Exploit Power Shifts. Shifrinson focuses on the policies that rising states adopt in response to declining…

Tanvi Madan is director of The India Project and a fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. 

Evan D. McCormick, the Robert P. Smith Scholar-in-Residence at the Roxbury Latin School and adjunct professor at Simmons University, chairs a new TNSR policy roundtable on Reagan’s foreign policy legacy.

Applications are now open for our 2019 Summer Seminar program. Apply by Monday, February 11th.

2019 London Maymester study abroad program applications now open until Monday, November 5th.

“Vietnam’s Indelible Legacy: How the War Changed International Policymaking:” War on the Rocks Managing Editor Usha Sahay sat down with Clements Center Executive Director Will Inboden, Associate Director Celeste Ward Gventer, and Faculty Affiliates Mark Atwood Lawrence and Aaron O’Connell to discuss the enduring influence of the Vietnam War on modern-day scholars and policymakers.  

Every year, the Clements Center takes 20 UT undergraduate students to London for a unique four-week Maymester study abroad program to study the US-UK special relationship at King’s College London. The program includes visits to important landmarks in British cultural heritage and Anglo-American strategic history, as well as private events with senior policymakers and historians.  

The Texas National Security Review brought together four distinguished scholars to review Melvyn Leffler’s Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism: U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security, 1920-2015. Leffler is the Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia and a member of our Academic Board. 

Eisenman offers a provocative thesis on how combined economic reform and ideological alignment spurred Mao’s collective economy in the 1970’s.  

Clements Center Faculty Fellow Jeremi Suri has published a review of Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons From Dealmaking at the Highest Level written by James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns and Robert H. Mnookin.  

In “Washington Needs a New Solarium Project To Counter Cyberthreats,” published in Foreign Policy, Inboden and Feaver compare and contrast Senator Ben Sasse’s proposed Cyberspace Solarium Commission to President Dwight Eisenhower’s Project Solarium exercise in 1953.

In “Why Visit Normandy? Reflections On A Birthplace Of The Liberal International Order,” Paul D. Miller reflects on his past two excursions to Normandy during the Clements Center Maymester program.

Galen Jackson examines the role of status in international politics by critically reviewing James Jungbok Lee’s article, “The Importance of Status: The US-ROK Alliance Cohesion and the First Korean Nuclear Crisis, 1993-4,” on the 1993-1994 negotiations relating to North Korea’s nuclear program. 

In The Hill’s “From Singapore, Skepticism and Hope,” Clements Center Executive Director Will Inboden compares yesterday’s summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un to Madeline Albright’s summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000. 

In “Vietnam Revisionism and the Ugly American,” published in Lawfare, Clements Center’s Mark Lawrence reviews Max Boot’s new release, “The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam.”