Horns of a Dilemma

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Frank Gavin, chair of the editorial board of the Texas National Security Review , sits down with Fredrik Logevall and Daniel Bessner, authors of " Recentering the United States in the Historiography of American Foreign Relations ," which appeared in the Spring 2020 edition of TNSR . This article discusses a trend in the academic history community, to try to s...

The United States faces a unique confluence of crises right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented economic and social impact on society, and has caused many people to reconceptualize what "national security" means. At the same time, the nation finds itself convulsed by issues of racial injustice and the response to issues in our criminal justice system. This likewise causes a reconce...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Doyle Hodges, the executive editor of the Texas National Security Review, sits down with author Dr. Brendan Gallagher to discuss his book, The Day After: Why America Wins the War but Loses the Peace . America has been successful in the battlefield aspects of its military endeavors but has struggled over the last two decades to find lasting political solutions...

In this episode, we learn more about the Clements Center namesake, William J. Clements. Clements negotiated a deal with President Richard Nixon where he reported directly to the president, despite serving as the Deputy Secretary of Defense. He served two non-consecutive terms as a Republican governor of Texas at a time when Texas politics was dominated by the Democratic party. Through Clements' ow...

In this episode of Horns, William Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center, and author and journalist Craig Fehrman, discuss his book, Author and Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote . In this fascinating conversation, Inboden and Fehrman examine the relationships between presidents and their ghost writers. In addition, they talk about how it is that preside...

Do reputations matter in international politics? Doyle Hodges, executive editor of the Texas National Security Review , sits down with professor Danielle Lupton to discuss her book, Reputation for Resolve: How Leaders Signal Determination in International Politics . Hodges and Lupton discus how reputations form and what results from these reputations. Lupton is professor at Colgate University and...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Doyle Hodges, executive editor of the Texas National Security Review , talks with Dr. Erik Lin-Greenberg about his article, " Allies and Artificial Intelligence: Obstacles to Operations and Decision-Making ," which is featured in Volume 3 Issue 2 of TNSR . Dr. Lin-Greenberg is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House and an...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we participate in our first ever cross-podcast and listen in on a conversation that took place on the This is Democracy podcast about the U.S.-China relationship. Jeremi Suri, a renowned scholar of democracy and host of This is Democracy , sits down with Sheena Greitens, one of the newest additions to the University of Texas faculty. Professor Greitens is abo...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Doyle Hodges, executive editor of Texas National Security Review , takes a deep dive into " Coercion Theory: A Basic Introduction for Practitioners ,"  an article by author Dr. Tami Davis Biddle that appeared in Volume 3 Issue 2 of the publication. Dr. Biddle is a professor of national security at the U.S. Army War College, where she has taught since 2001. He...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Paul Edgar, the associate director for the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sits down with for a wide-ranging discussion about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European governance. Paul is joined by Amanda Sloat, a Robert Bosch senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, Michael Mosser,...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Paul Edgar, the associate director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sits down with retired Marine Gen. Robert Neller, the former 37th commandant of the Marine Corp., and retired Army Gen. Vincent Brooks, former commander of U.S. Forces Korea. Edgar, Brooks, and Neller discuss how the military is supporting civic authorities as they...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen to a discussion moderated by Steve Slick of the Strauss Center and the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas at Austin about the role of intelligence in the COVID-19 pandemic. Slick is joined by Bobby Chesney, director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, Paul Pope, senior fellow at the Intelligence Studies Pro...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Will Inboden, director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sits down with Rebeccah Heinrichs of the Hudson Institute to talk about nuclear weapons. Their conversation is wide-ranging, covering the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, American policies regarding testing, and arms control agreements. The conversation also focuses on how th...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, William Inboden, director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sit downs with Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for New American Security. In this wide-ranging discussion that spans the globe, Inboden and Fontaine look at issues of great power competition, making a distinction between the threats, risks, and challenges posed by...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen in on a talk given by Brig. Gen. (ret.) Kimberly Field, professor of the practice and executive director of the Albritton Center for Grand Strategy at Texas A&M. Gen. Field discusses the notion of grand strategy in the context of alliance relationships. Specifically, she draws on her experience serving as a U.S. representative at the United Nations...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen in on a conversation moderated by Dr. Michele Malvesti, vice president at the Financial Integrity Network and visiting professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin, and Dr. Julie Schafer, the chief technology officer for Flu Lab. Dr. Malvesti and Dr. Schafer discuss the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus. They look at t...

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...

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 ow...

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 Lete...

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 staffe...

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 Eur...

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 37 th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. During the discussion, Neller focuses on the future of the Marines, the future of...

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 su...

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 Po...

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 indepen...