Horns Of A Dilemma

In our last episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we featured a speech by Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence. At the very same conference​, organized by the Intelligence Studies Project -- a collaborative effort of the Strauss and Clements Centers down at the University of Texas -- there was a fascinating conversation moderated by Michele L. Malvesti of Tufts University, that featured John McLaughlin, the former Acting Director of Central Intelligence, Nicholas Rasmussen, former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and Norman Roule, former National Intelligence Manager for Iran.     

What challenges confront the U.S. intelligence community in the 21st century? There are few better positioned to know the answers to that question than Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence. The Intelligence Studies Program, a collaborative initiative of the Strauss Center and the Clements Center down at the University of Texas, held a major conference recently where Coats was the keynote speaker. Listen to his wide-ranging remarks on North Korea, Russia, China, cyber-security, terrorism, and how the United States is a bit like the New York Yankees. Hear why, for Coats, America's ability to handle these challenges depends on a talented and more capable workforce. And hear why Coats is treating the reform of the security clearance process as an urgent issue.   

This is Horns of a Dilemma, the podcast partner to that journal, which features the thinkers and leaders resident at the various institutions of the University of Texas and those who stop in to share their wisdom.  On the latest episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we have Amy Zegart, who was hosted at the University of Texas as a part of the Strauss Center's Brumley Speaker Series. You should know who Amy is already, but if you don’t she is co-director of the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Davies Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. To call this a talk about cybersecurity would be accurate, but it wouldn’t do this wide-ranging and fascinating episode justice.    

In the second episode of our new podcast series, "Horns of a Dilemma," William Inboden interviews Mark Updegrove, president and chief Executive of the LBJ Foundation, and author of the new book The Last Republicans: Inside the Extraordinary Relationship Between George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush (Harper 2017). This new book draws on interviews with both Bush presidents to explore their formative experiences as well as their perspectives on public service, America’s role in the world, Donald Trump, and the transmutation of the Republican Party that has transfixed the United States and turned its politics upside-down.     

This is the first episode of “Horns of a Dilemma,” a new series brought to you by the Texas National Security Review, featuring the leaders and thinkers based at the University of Texas or who stop in to share their wisdom. Fittingly, we are kicking this off with a conversation on leadership, mostly in the national security context. This session is moderated by William Inboden, the director of the Clements Center. The guests are all based at the University of Texas: Adm. (ret.) Bill McRaven, former CIA Director John Brennan, former NSA Director Adm. (ret.) Bobby Inman, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro. Have a listen and don’t forget to subscribe to this new show’s feed!