Press | 2020

The Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin is seeking applications from recent PhD recipients for its Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and from current PhD candidates for its Predoctoral Fellowship Program. Applications are due January 27, 2023.

In “A U.S. Media Strategy for the 2020s: Lessons from the Cold War,” Clements Center Senior National Security Fellow Mark Pomar argues that the Biden administration needs to protect the journalistic independence of U.S. international broadcasters.

This episode of Horns of a Dilemma features a panel discussion on prospects for civil-military relations in the Joe Biden administration.  The discussion brings a wealth of knowledge on civil-military issues, as well as a wealth of experience in administering defense programs. The conversation covers a broad range of topics ranging from the challenges that…

Take a look back at the Fall 2020 semester at the Clements Center! If you would like to subscribe to our Events or Newsletter email list, please sign up here.

Professor J. Paul Pope, a Senior Fellow with ISP, recently published an essay “Intelligence Lessons From COVID: Being ‘Right’ Is Not Enough” as part of the LBJ School’s “policy toolkit” on resiliency. In the essay, Professor Pope evaluates COVID as a potential intelligence failure and challenges the utility of the traditional “Intelligence Cycle” in assessing…

Jim Golby, Clements Center Senior Fellow, and Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s The Global Public Square (GPS), look back at why generals have historically been kept away from serving as Secretary of Defense and discuss Biden’s Secretary of Defense pick.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sits down with Simon Miles, assistant professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, to discuss his book, Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End…

Dr. Jim Golby further elucidates his concerns with the requirement for a waiver from Congress for Biden’s latest pick for the Pentagon post. 

Clements Center faculty fellow Nate Jensen gives his take on the Musk exodus from California and relocation to the great state of Texas. 

Clements Center Senior Fellow Jim Golby was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition show, where he criticized President-Elect Biden’s pick of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin As Pentagon Chief.

Twenty-nine LBJ School authors have come together to craft interdisciplinary and resilience-based policy solutions, published today in one toolkit called “Resiliency in the Age of COVID-19”. This toolkit comes as researchers from across The University of Texas at Austin continue to offer first-of-its-kind groundbreaking research and discovery in the fight against COVID and its long-lasting impacts…

Listen now to episode 9 of Seay the Future with George Seay to get to know our esteemed Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair, Dr. Will Inboden. 

In “Sorry, Gen. Lloyd Austin. A Recently Retired General Should Not Be Secretary of Defense.” published in the New York Times, Clements Center Senior Fellow Jim Golby argues that after a tumultuous four years, we need civilian leadership and a return to normalcy.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) H.R. McMaster, author of the new book Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, discusses his theories of strategic empathy and the security processes that he implemented in the Trump administration, and examines the threats posed by Russia, China, and a myriad of other…

“The closer than expected race ‘shows energy from a more progressive wing of the party and Castro seems to be riding that,’ said William Inboden” for the latest article regarding the failed bid of  Rep. Joaquin Castro for a post on the Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Jim Golby, Clements Center Senior Fellow, and Peter Feaver, Clements Center Academic Board of Reference member and Duke University Professor, survey the American public on withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and analyze the results in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.

Senior Fellow Jim Golby examines President Trump’s decision to reduce U.S. troops in Afghanistan and considers the consequences. 

This episode of Horns of a Dilemma is a powerhouse of intelligence knowledge. Adm. (Ret.) William McRaven, former chancellor of the University of Texas at Austin and retired U.S. Navy four-star admiral, sits down with John Brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to discuss Brennan’s new book, Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, At…

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Bobby Chesney, director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sit down with Peter Baker and Susan Glasser to discuss their new book, The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life…

We are delighted at the news of the late Bill Powers being unanimously named as President Emeritus. We owe the very establishment of the Clements Center to Powers’ support and vision. Will Inboden, Clements executive director and William Powers, Jr. chair, writes, “Bill’s enthusiasm for the Clements Center also came because as a Navy veteran he…

“If the United States is to fend off the challenge from the Chinese Communist Party, it must recommit to its own ideals and values,” Romanow writes for his latest article in The Bulwark Online. 

 “The United States and China are the two most powerful and influential countries in the world, and right now, we’re at a moment when I think both countries are revisiting some major assumptions about what the U.S.-China relationship should look like,” posits Sheena Greitens in the latest issue of The Catalyst. Follow the link to…

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Michael Kimmage, professor and department chair at the Department of History at Catholic University in Washington D.C., discusses his book, The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy. Kimmage asserts that the idea of the “West” — a set of shared values…

Clements Center Executive Director Dr. Inboden recalls his time during the Bush-Obama transition and implores the Trump administration to be “responsible” and “patriotic” in its duty to allow access to the Biden team stating, “[m]ost of Biden’s incoming senior staff already have security clearances and providing them access to classified intelligence information would not preclude Trump…

Sheena Chestnut Greitens, faculty fellow and LBJ associate professor, was quoted in the South China Morning Post authored by Jacob Fromer saying, “There has been enough warning rhetoric about Chinese influence, espionage and other issues from the administration and federal law enforcement that local actors may have internalized some real wariness of China, and may…

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Clint Work of the Stimson Center and Stimson’s 38 North program hosts a discussion between Gen. Vincent Brooks, senior fellow at the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and Sheena Greitens, professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas…

Clements Center Undergraduate Fellow Patrick O’Connor releases inaugural episode “Machiavelli and the American Presidency,” a discussion on the use of force, domestic conflict, and the 2020 election with Clements Center Associate Director Paul Edgar for Implied Powers podcast series. 

A new article for Foreign Policy from Joshua Busby, distinguished scholar at the Strauss Center,  makes the claim for a much smaller divide between the U.S. foreign policy establishment and the public at large that previously thought. With support from both the Strauss and Clements Centers the recent polling shows that “contrary to the notion…

The Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin is seeking applications from recent PhD recipients for its Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and from current PhD candidates for its Predoctoral Fellowship Program. Applications are due January 29, 2021.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen to a talk by David French, author of Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How we Restore our Nation. French details the way in which the United States has become increasingly polarized politically, geographically, and culturally, and examines what he considers to be the threat…

Applications are now open for our sixth annual seminar! The 2021 Summer Seminar will be held from July 18 – 23 at the Pines Resort in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Apply by Sunday, February 15th.