Horns Of A Dilemma

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen in on a book talk given by James Mann, author of The Great Rift: Dickey Cheney, Colin Powell, and the Broken Friendship that Defined an Era. Mann, a journalist and prolific author who has previously written about foreign policy in the Regan, Bush, and Obama administrations, is currently an author-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. In his book, Mann explores the relationship between Colin Powell and Dick Cheney during the post-Cold War period from 1988 to 2008. Mann discusses the differences in how the two men saw themselves, whether as politicians, policymakers, or career public servants. This difference sowed the seeds of what would ultimately become a fracture in a friendship that first developed during the Reagan administration. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen in on a talk given by Ambassador Dennis Ross, former special envoy to the middle east peace process. Ambassador Ross discusses his new book, “Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped its Destiny,” in which he describes four Israeli leaders who he asserts made decisions for the good of the state rather than their own political benefit. He discusses this in the broader context of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and in particular evaluates the new plan put forward by the Trump administration. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center and the Strauss Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Alan McPherson, the Thomas J. Freany Jr. Professor of History and director of the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy of Temple University, comes to the University of Texas to talk about his book, Ghosts of Sheridan Circle. McPherson discusses the September 1976 car bomb assassination of the former Chilean ambassador to the United States Orlando Letelier, and human right activist Ronni Moffitt, at Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C. Agents of the Chilean secret police under President Augusto Pinochet carried out the murders. Letelier had served briefly as the Chilean ambassador to the United States under President Salvador Allende, who Pinochet had overthrown in a 1973 coup. The talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center.  

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, John Gans, director of communications and research at Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania, gives a talk at the University of Texas at Austin to discusses his book, White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War. In this talk, Gans focuses on the career and the accomplishments of a single NSC staffer, who ultimately perished during his duties in Bosnia. He uses the story of Nelson Drew as a way to illustrate both the power and the process that exists within the NSC. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Amanda Sloat, a Robert Bosch senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, talks about Brexit. Sloat details the path of how Britain got to this point, as well as the number of efforts on the part of Theresa May and Boris Johnson to find a solution that would be amenable both to the British Parliament and to the European Union. Her insights help to understand both the long-term implications of Brexit, as well as the substantial challenges that are posed by the implementation of this agreement. The talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Aaron O’Connell, associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, and Paul Edgar, associate director of the Clements Center for National Security, moderate a conversation with retired Gen. Robert Neller, the 37th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. During the discussion, Neller focuses on the future of the Marines, the future of war, and vital threats to American national interests. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center and the Strauss Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Centre and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, comes to the University of Texas to discuss his book, How Churchill Waged War: The Most Challenging Decision of the Second World War. Packwood explores issues that are lesser known than Churchill’s famous oratorical skills, such as how he organized for success in dealing with the unique challenges that confronted him as he assumed the premiership, how he dealt with questions of civil-military relations by assuming the role of defense minister, and how the features that made Churchill an indomitable war leader led ultimately to his transition from power after the war. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center, sits down with a panel of experts to discuss the origins and possible outcomes of the Brexit referendum. Will is joined by Michael Mosser, assistant professor of international relations and global studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Lorinc Redei, lecturer and graduate adviser for the Global Policy Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin, and Amanda Sloat, a Robert Bosch senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center. 

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Charlie Laderman, lecturer in international history at the War Studies Department at King's College, discusses his book Sharing the Burden: The Armenian Question, Humanitarian Intervention, and Anglo-American Visions of Global Order. Laderman talks about the mass killing and death of Armenians during the period that preceded and shortly followed the independence of the Turkish Republic. The subject of this episode focuses on the question of how this incident signaled the rise of a global order based simultaneously on liberalism, sovereignty, and a commitment to human rights. This event took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center. 

In this episode of Horns of Dilemma, Calder Walton, assistant director of the Applied History Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, talks about election meddling in the past, present, and future. He describes the history of KGB interference in U.S. elections and how the U.S. has countered it. Walton discusses how the KGB found that they just couldn't just construct a lie out of whole cloth. Instead, they had to build on pre-existing divides that existed in America. KGB propaganda focused on issues of race, religion, and, strangely, the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center, the Strauss Center, and the International Studies Project. 

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Darren Dochuk, associate professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, discusses his new book, Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America. Dochuk explores how oil grafted itself to the soul of the United States and became part of its identity. He uses the term "wildcat Christianity" to describe the actions of oil prospectors who used the profits from their ventures to support Christian missionary endeavors around the world and traces how the religious identity and cultural identity of the United States are intertwined with this natural resource. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center, sits down with Professor Paul Pope and Dr. Kiril Avramov of the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas and Dr. Calder Walton, assistant director of the Applied History Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, to discuss the history of influence operations and active measures by the Soviet Union and Russia. Their wide-ranging discussion covers everything from Soviet active measures in Chile, to the theory of reflexive control that governed the Soviet strategy of conducting influence operations, to the response in the United States to Operation JADE HELM, Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the role of social media in advancing political warfare goals. Join us for a fascinating conversation about history that has urgent implications for today.

Sovereignty as a concept conveys that a single entity has the legitimate authority to exercise governance over a particular territory. So, how can an exclusive individual right be shared? John Ciorciari, associate professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center and the International Policy Center, explores these questions at a talk he recently gave at the University of Texas. Specifically, he asks what sovereignty sharing is and why it matters, and what the conditions are under which it could work. Ciorciari uses examples from Cambodia, Liberia, and Guatemala to illustrate what sovereignty sharing looks like in practice, and why it matters. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, TNSR's executive editor, Doyle Hodges, sits down with Laurie Blank, clinical professor of law and director of the International Law Clinic at Emory University, and Bobby Chesney, James Baker Chair in the Rule of Law and World Affairs and director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas, Austin. They discuss the field of national security law broadly, including why Americans have turned increasingly to law to address questions related to national security, even as public confidence in institutions associated with law has declined. They also dive into how law confers legitimacy on the process of national security decision-making and what the limitations of law are in addressing national security questions. Join us for a fascinating discussion on law, security, technology, and society.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, John Gans, director of communications and research at Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania, sits down with several members of the University of Texas faculty to discuss his new book, White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War. The discussion is led by William Inboden, editor-in-chief of the Texas National Security Review and director of the Clements Center, Steve Slick, director of the Intelligence Studies Project and former director and senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council, and Aaron O'Connell, a veteran of the National Sescurity Council staff and faculty fellow at the Clements Center. The discussion dives into the role of the National Security Council and the challenges it faces. They also discuss Gans' process in researching and writing White House Warriors.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, retired General Amos Yadlin sits down with Steve Slick, director of the Intelligence Studies Project, to discuss Middle East security and Israeli security concerns. Slick and General Yadlin also engage in a conversation about the role of Israel in the middle east, the future of Israel, and questions regarding security in the region. General Yadlin served in the Israeli Armed Forces for over forty years as an air force officer and as the director of Israeli Military Intelligence. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Intelligence Studies Project, the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and the Clements Center for National Security.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, retired Gen. Vincent Brooks sits down with William Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center. The conversation spans Gen. Brooks' career from his days as a cadet at West Point, where he was the first African American appointed to serve as first captain, all the way through his retirement after thirty-eight and a half years as a four star general commanding all U.S., U.N., and combined U.S. and Korean forces on the Korean peninsula. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center and the Strauss Center.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, William Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center for National Security, and Robert Chesney, director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, sit down with Texas congressman Mac Thornberry for a wide-ranging discussion on defense policy. Congressman Thornberry is a ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee and served as chairman of the Armed Services Committee from January 2015 to January 2019. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center and the Strauss Center.

Where are we 18 years after 9/11? What is the nature of the phenomenon of terrorism now and what challenges does America face today? What security strategies are currently in place and have they worked? Paul Pope, senior fellow at the Intelligence Studies Project, moderates a panel on counterterrorism since 9/11. Paul is joined by John Brennan, former CIA director, retired Adm. William McRaven, former commander of the Special Operations Command, Farah Pandith, author and former National Security Council and State Department official, and Nicholas Rasmussen, former National Counterterrorism Center director. This talk took place at the University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Intelligence Studies Project, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and the Clements Center for National Security.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Jim Goldgeier, professor and former dean of the American University School of International Service, and Derek Chollet, current executive vice president of the German Marshall Fund, discuss their 2008 book, America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 and the arc of post-cold war American foreign policy. In this podcast, they've included another 11/9, referring not to the end of the Cold War, but to Nov. 9, 2016, the day after the election of Donald Trump. This talk was recorded during the University of Texas Clements Center's Summer Seminar on History, Statecraft, and Diplomacy.