Press | 2019

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.

In this second installment of the 2019 Intelligence Studies Project Symposium, Robert Chesney, director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, moderates a panel on emerging threats, technology challenges, and institutional change. Panelists include Michelle Van Cleave, former national counterintelligence executive, Matthew Travis, deputy director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, Samantha Ravich,…

This episode of Horns of a Dilemma is part of a special series of live episodes bringing you into the room at the 2019 ISP Symposium. In this first installment, Ellen Nakashima, national security reporter at the Washington Post, sits down with John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, to discuss law enforcement responses to new…

Stephen Tankel, associate professor in the School of International Service at American University and associate editor of the Texas National Security Review, discusses his recently published book, With Us and Against Us: How America’s Partners Help and Hinder the War on Terror.

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. 

Washington Post National Security Correspondent (and 2019 ISP Symposium panelist) Ellen Nakashima references Susan Gordon’s keynote remarks at the University of Texas at Austin in her latest article on Huawei and potential security risks in the advanced global telecommunications market.

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”.

In their new Lawfare article, Rasmussen and coauthors Joshua Geltzer and Mary McCord criticize the misleading distinction between “domestic” and “international” terrorism. They provide recommendations for governments to recognize the transnational qualities of both categories of terrorist organizations in order to implement more successful counterterrorism efforts. 

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.

Dr. Inboden comments on the implications of the US-DPRK nuclear talks at the Hanoi summit on “Washington Wednesday”.

Stravers explores how presidential emergency declarations affect separation of powers in his latest commentary piece for War on the Rocks. 

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Wen-Qing Ngoei, assistant professor of history at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, argues that British neo-colonial strategies and anti-communist nationalism in Southeast Asia intersected with pre-existing local antipathy towards China to prompt a shift in the region from European-dominated colonialism to U.S. hegemony. 

A note from Executive Director Will Inboden:

AUSTIN, Texas – Nicholas “Nick” Rasmussen, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and Dr. Michele Malvesti, a scholar and former White House counterterrorism advisor, will teach and advise students at the University of Texas-Austin.  Rasmussen and Malvesti will hold joint appointments as Senior National Security Fellows at UT’s Strauss Center for International Security and Law, Clements Center for National Security, and Intelligence Studies Project.

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. 

Will Inboden moderates a discussion on authoritarian interference in democracies with Jamie Fly and Laura Rosenberger, Senior Fellows of the German Marshall Fund. 

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…

“China’s Vietnam War: a domestic politics perspective” examines the role elite factional politics played in China’s decision to attack Vietnam in February 1979.

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

Chesney writes on the “alarming judicial precedent” of President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency over the security of the southern border. 

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Mark Pomar, Senior National Security Fellow at the Clements Center and the former CEO and president of the U.S.-Russia Foundation, discusses what we need to know about Russia under Vladimir Putin, and how Putin’s leadership is affecting U.S.-Russia ties. 

Dr. Inboden comments on Russia’s interest in the ongoing crisis in Venezuela as a potential opportunity to undermine U.S. interests in the region. 

In “The Rhetorical Presidency Made Flesh: A Political Science Classic in the Age of Donald Trump”, Zug revisits Jeffrey Tulis’ 1987 thesis in the context of the Trump administration.

How have recent Nuclear Posture Reviews — which outline the role nuclear weapons play in U.S. national security strategy — addressed the question of strategic stability? Here to talk about it for Horns of a Dilemma is Sharon Weiner, associate professor at American University and currently a visiting research scholar at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. 

In the final episode from the Texas National Security Forum, Clements Center Faculty Fellow and Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar Josh Eisenman moderated a discussion on China with Christopher Johnson, former Central Intelligence Agency analyst, Kelly Magsamen, former principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, and Jim Steinberg, former deputy secretary of state. 

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.