Press | 2022

The Clements and Strauss Center’s Intelligence Studies Project is pleased to announce the winner and two semifinalists in the eighth-annual competition recognizing outstanding student research and writing on topics related to intelligence and national security.  

Phrases such as, “history is written by the victors,” while often cycnical, hint at a fundamental truth: Historical events assume different significance depending on the perspective from which they are viewed. In this week’s episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Professor Elisabeth Leake of the Fletcher School at Tufts University discusses her book, Afghan Crucible, which examines the war in Afghanistan from a variety of different historical, political, and geographic perspectives.

UT News published a profile on Clements Undergraduate Fellow and “renaissance woman” Soren Ettinger DeCou! Soren is a senior and we can’t wait to see what she does after graduation!

We were very sad to hear of the passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. Will Inboden, Executive Director of the Clements Center, and Jeremi Suri, the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The LBJ School of Public Affairs, penned an op-ed on The Hill about this remarkable man whose role in the “sprint for peace” changed the course of history.

Recently spotted on LinkedIn: Former Clements Center Doctoral Fellow Ben Griffin teaching at The United States Military Academy at West Point where he is an Assistant Professor and Chief of the Military History Division in the Department of History. We love seeing our alums at work! 

Clements Center Senior National Security Fellow Mark Pomar was interviewed on Rashkin Report about his time with Voice of America and Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe during the Cold War.

Following President Biden’s signing of the CHIPs for America Act, Congressman Michael McCaul and U.S. Senator John Cornyn toured Austin Community College’s advanced manufacturing academy, where newly-hired technicians for Austin semiconductor companies are trained. Clements Center Executive Director attended and noted the importance of breaking America’s dependence on foreign semiconductors: “If America can regain our edge…

A cynic might argue that a Venn diagram of good legal compliance, good politics, good strategy, and morally good behavior has no space where all four elements intersect. This week’s guests on Horns of a Dilemma argue that these virtues coincide in the protection of civilians from harm during war.

This August, the Clements Center took our 2022-2023 Undergraduate Fellows to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. to learn how history can be a tool for contemporary decision-making and to introduce them to the institutional structure of national security in the United States. 

In this week’s episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Charles Edel discusses the big questions in U.S.-Chinese relations.

Each academic year, the Clements Center hosts several advanced PhD students and recent PhD graduates in foreign and defense policy, international security or related fields. Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows spend time working on their own research and writing projects, while taking advantage of the many academic resources available here at the University of Texas-Austin.

Clements Center Undergraduate Fellow Soren Ettinger DeCou recently published “Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Technology: A Powerful Tool for a Better World” on DipNote, the State Department’s official blog. Well done, Soren!

Laura Quaglia is a PhD candidate in the Department of Government at the University of Texas Austin, specializing in Public Policy and Comparative Politics.

Clements Executive Director Will Inboden will be moderating a panel at The Texas Tribune Festival! “A New World Disorder” will feature Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Representative Michael McCaul, and Governor Bill Richardson – September 24 at 10:45 a.m.

“Civil-military relations” is a term that covers a multitude of sins. Scholars of civil-military relations write on topics ranging from recruiting and retention to military coups to norms of professional military behavior. This week’s Horns of a Dilemma speaker, Dr. Kori Schake, argues that civil-military relations in the United States have historically been strong and stable. So why are U.S. civil-military relations an important topic of study and debate?

Amy H. Liu (PhD Emory University; BA Smith College) is an Associate Professor in the Government Department, Co-Director of the Politics of Race and Ethnicity Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, and a Faculty Fellow at the Clements Center.

This July, the Clements Center hosted its eighth annual Summer Seminar in History and Statecraft in scenic Beaver Creek, Colorado.

One of the most gratifying things for us here at the Clements Center is to see our alumni out in the world doing great work! Our former Undergraduate Fellow Grace Mappes is currently a Russia Researcher at the Institute for the Study of War and one of the authors of a daily Assessment of the…

This episode is the second part of a conversation between four people who knew the late Robert Jervis well:

“As the National Security Act of 1947 enjoys its 75th anniversary, it has in a way come full circle back to its founding purposes.” – Clements Director Will Inboden reflects on the remarkable first 75 years of the National Security Act and what the future might hold.

Nick Romanow was a Clements Center Undergraduate Fellow from 2019 until he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in May 2021 with a Bachelor’s in International Relations and Global Studies.

Clements Center Postdoctoral Fellow William Chou will be a contestant on Jeopardy! next Monday, July 18th! Check www.jeopardy.com/watch for local broadcast stations and times. William is a historian of postwar US-Japanese commercial and security relations and a Jeopardy! fan who achieved his lifelong dream of being on the show. We hope you will tune in to cheer for William.

The Clements Center’s Coffee Hours program was featured in UT News article “A Matter of National Security” written by Avrel Seale. Coffee Hours are popular biweekly meetings open to all UT students to discuss topics in national security, and are led by the Clements Center Undergraduate Fellows. 

Many of those who follow War on the Rocks and the Texas National Security Review mourned the passing of Robert Jervis, the towering scholar of international relations who defined a field and mentored generations of scholars and policymakers. Four of his close friends, colleagues, and protégés sat down to remember his legacy, his intellectual contributions, and his kindness.