Press | 2022

Clements National Security Journalism Fellow Eli Lake published a piece in Commentary Magazine on the ways Russia’s actions in Ukraine have altered the world order, and what should be done about it. 

In an oped on The Hill, Will Inboden, Executive Director of the Clements Center, and Adam Klein, Deputy Director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, explain why the U.S. semiconductor supply should be treated as a matter of national security.

Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Russian cyber and information operations boasted a fearsome reputation. Surprisingly, Russian cyber operations don’t seem to have played a major role in the invasion, and Ukrainian information operations have routinely bested often-clumsy Russian efforts.

Alexandra Sukalo, a postdoctoral fellow at the Clements Center, published an op-ed in the Washington Post on the recent damage done to Ukrainian archives by Russian forces.

Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Founding Director of the Asia Policy Program, was quoted in a Financial Times article regarding the economic consequences China may face for their support of Russia. 

For nearly two decades, the top security concern of U.S. leaders regarding Iran has been preventing the leaders of the Islamic Republic from attaining this same power. In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Will Inboden and Michael Singh discuss the history, current status, and future of these efforts.

Kay Bailey Hutchison and Will Inboden’s opinion piece on energy security in light of the current war in Ukraine was published in the Houston Chronicle.

The Clements Center for National Security, in partnership with the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, Harvard Kennedy School’s Applied History Program, the LBJ Foundation, and the University of Texas at Austin’s History Department hosted a conference in February 2022 entitled “Civil War and Intervention: U.S. Foreign Policy in International Perspective.”

On Wednesday, March 2nd, the Clements Center for National Security, Asia Policy Program, LBJ School of Public Affairs, Strauss Center for International Security and Law, Intelligence Studies Project, and Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies hosted “War in Ukraine: An Expert Panel Discussion”.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is remembered for many things, among them his iconic observation that, “There are known knowns–there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns–that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know…

Clements Graduate Fellow Bryan Frizzelle, a PhD candidate at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, appeared on the “This is Democracy” podcast with Faculty Fellow Jeremi Suri to discuss the history of NATO and its importance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Clements Center Graduate Fellow Daniel J. Samet reviewed a new release by Hal Brands, “The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today” for the National Review.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we hear from Joanna Chiu, author of China Unbound: A New World Disorder.

Clements Faculty Fellow Jeremi Suri spoke to Texas Standard about the effect long-term sanctions could have on Russia, and the extent to which China will back Putin. 

This week’s Horns of a Dilemma podcast explores the uncomfortable ways in which jokes about stifled expression in the Soviet Union still resonate in Russia today. Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician and opposition leader who was twice poisoned and left in a coma by agents of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Congratulations to Clements Faculty Fellow Jeremi Suri on his upcoming release, “Civil War by Other Means”.

Clements Executive Director Will Inboden was interviewed on Texas Standard today about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. He underscores the nature of current U.S., Ukrainian, and Russian actions and highlights some possibilities including a full invasion or a puppet government.

In this week’s Horns of a Dilemma, Bobby Chesney, director of the Strauss Center at the University of Texas, Austin, speaks with Brandon Wales, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). 

Former Clements predoctoral fellow Thomas Jamison recently published a new essay, “Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Influence of Sea Power Upon History as Strategy, Grand Strategy, and Polemic” on Classics of Strategy and Diplomacy.

Professor Sheena Greitens was quoted in Timothy McLaughlin’s recent The Atlantic article about how the pandemic has factored into China’s domestic political strategy under Xi Jinping’s leadership. 

Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Founding Director of the Asia Policy Program, was quoted on Bloomberg Quint about who may have a more positive opinion of China due to the Games. 

In this week’s episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen to a discussion between Clements Center Executive Director Will Inboden, and Professor Hal Brands of Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. They are talking about Brands’ new book, Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us About Great Power Rivalry Today. While the geopolitical rivalry…

Congratulations to visiting faculty fellow Rosella Cappella Zielinski on co-authoring a new article on battlefield coalitions in a special issue of The Journal of Strategic Studies.

Predoctoral fellow Zoltán Fehér wrote this piece on one of America’s most celebrated political scientists, Joseph Nye, to mark his 85th birthday.

Clements graduate fellow Daniel Samet recently co-authored this piece on Real Clear Defense on why the U.S. should pay more attention to China’s influence in the Middle East.

Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Founding Director of the Asia Policy Program, was quoted in Bloomberg regarding China’s plans for a protest-free Olympics despite its human rights record.

In this week’s episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we hear from Professor Sandra Fahy of Carleton University about the way in which states use video evidence to try to falsely defend themselves against claims of human rights abuses.

We kicked off the Spring 2022 semester with a trip to the LBJ Ranch with our Undergraduate Fellows. Lynne Hudson, a retired Army nurse who served in Vietnam from 1967-1968, spoke to the group about her experience in the field, and former Clements Center Predoctoral Fellow Theo Milonopoulos led the students through a policy simulation exercise. Our Fellows also went on a tour of the ranch, stopping at the Junction School, the cemetery, the show barn and the Texas White House where President Johnson made important policy decisions during his presidency.

On Thursday, January 27, at 12:00 EST join The Vandenberg Coalition and Clements Executive Director, Will Inboden, for a talk on his upcoming book, “The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan in the White House and the World”. Zoom registration in link.  

As the threat of Russian invasion looms over Ukraine, this week’s epsiode of Horns of a Dilemma helps to clarify the origins of the post-Cold War security structure in Europe and the role of NATO expansion and enlargement in defining both Western and Russian threat perception.

Mark Pomar, a Senior National Security Fellow at the Clements Center, was interviewed on Texas Standard about the U.S. approach to the current tensions in Ukraine.

The Global (Dis)Information Lab (“GDIL”) was established in 2020 at the University of Texas at Austin to encourage collaborative interdisciplinary academic research on the global circulation of misinformation, and disinformation via digital media.

In this week’s episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we continue with a panel discussion that follows author Wesley Morgan’s discussion of his book, The Hardest Place. If you haven’t listened to last week’s episode, which includes Morgan’s book talk, you may want to do so, since this week’s episode includes discussion of events that are covered…