Press | 2021

Daniel J. Samet is a Ph.D. student in History at the University of Texas at Austin and a Graduate Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security. He researches U.S. foreign policy with a focus on relations with the Middle East. Daniel previously worked at the Atlantic Council and the National Endowment for Democracy. The…

The America in the World Consortium invites students, scholars, and policy practitioners to submit proposals for a one-day conference on issues facing the Indo-Pacific region and its role in American foreign policy and strategy.

In a new commentary for CSIS, Nicholas Szechenyi, Hannah Fodale, and former Clements undergraduate fellow Jada Fraser make the case for U.S.-Japan-ROK Cooperation on democracy support in the Indo-Pacific region.

In this week’s episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Thomas Shugart, adjunct senior fellow with the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, discusses the implications of growing Chinese military power. Shugart frames his discussion in terms of what he calls the “Malacca Dilemma”: Since much of Chinese trade and almost all Chinese energy imports must flow through strategic chokepoints controlled by the U.S. Navy or its allies and partners, Chinese leaders want to be able to protect their interests in these vital regions. But the same capabilities that allow them to protect their trading interests also allow them to threaten, intimidate, and coerce other regional countries, and may give Chinese communist leaders the tools needed to challenge or change the global order that has defined the region for decades.

Former Undergraduate Fellow Nicholas Romanow on why the Democratic Peace still matters. 

Clements Graduate Portfolio student Emma Rogers details how the use of drones has evolved over the last four presidential administrations.

Applications are now open for our seventh annual seminar! The 2022 Summer Seminar will be held from July 17 – 22 at the Pines Resort in Beaver Creek, Colorado. 

In a special issue of The Texas National Security Review, Dr. Condoleezza Rice reflects on her friendship with Janne Nolan, and on Janne’s profound impact on how we think about nuclear issues. Dr. Rice sits on the Clements Statecraft Board of Reference.

While most people think of North Korea today as an isolated pariah state, the “hermit kingdom” exercised significant influence among Third World nations during the Cold War. North Korean leader Kim Il Sung sent advisors to assist African liberation movements, trained anti-imperialist guerrilla fighters, and completed building projects in developing countries. State-run media coverage of events in the Third World shaped the worldview of many North Koreans and helped them imagine a unified global anti-imperialist front with North Korea at the vanguard. In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Professor Benjamin Young of Virginia Commonwealth University discusses these developments, as detailed in his book, Guns, Guerrillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World. This talk was sponsored by the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and was hosted by Professor Sheena Greitens of the LBJ School at the University of Texas, Austin.

Jeremi Suri, a Faculty Fellow at the Clements Center, reviewed Martin Indyk’s new book, Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy, for the New York Times. The book follows Kissinger’s diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East throughout his career, highlighting the unique challenges it presented. Henry Kissinger serves on the Clements Center Statecraft Board of Reference.

We have updated the list of Spring 2022 courses that will apply for the Undergraduate Certificate in Security Studies. 

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we hear from Elbridge Colby, co-founder of the Marathon Initiative, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, and author of The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Competition. Colby makes the case for a U.S. defense strategy focused on preventing Chinese hegemony in Asia by…