Horns of a Dilemma

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Dr. Catherine Lotrionte, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discusses state-sponsored cyber economic espionage, that is the use of state resources in order to obtain private intellectual property, not for the benefit of the state, but for the benefit of industries and companies.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Randall G. Schriver, the former assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs and now serving as the chairman of the Project 2049 Institute, offers an overview of U.S. security relations throughout Asia. He speaks of the policy continuity between the Trump and Biden administrations. He also discusses issues such as human rights and democrac...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Nicole Perlroth, author of This is How the Word Ends: The Cyber Weapons Arms Race , sits down with Bobby Chesney, director of the Strauss Center, to discuss the increasing complexity and sophistication of attacks on U.S infrastructure and the challenges presented in defending against cyber attacks.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Ambassador Philip T. Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, provides an overview of European security issues. Ambassador Reeker's talk focuses on Russia, NATO, Eastern Europe, as well as other critical European security issues.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Thomas Ricks, journalist and historian, talks about his new book, " First Principles, What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How that Shaped Our Country ." Ricks outlines the degree to which the founding fathers were influenced by the ancients and how this influence helped to shape the structure and the principles of the emerging repub...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Martha Bárcena, former Mexican ambassador to the United States, and Kimberly Breier, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discuss U.S.-Mexican relations. The talk covers topics such as immigration and trade, but also highlights the degree to which the U.S. and Mexico are each indispensable to each other.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Henry Hale, professor of political science and international relations at George Washington University, gives a talk about the evolution of power structures in post-Soviet Eurasia. Hale focuses on the concept of "patronalism," the idea that political power is distributed and wielded by networks that are connected by personal acquaintances and lead by a single...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center, and Jim Golby, senior fellow at the Clements Center, sit down with Amb. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a former U.S. senator and most recently U.S. ambassador to NATO. They discuss NATO's future, the challenges that confront NATO now, as well as the development of a new strategic concept, likely to be developed...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Tess Owen, senior reporter at VICE News covering extremism, hate crimes, and gun control, sits down with Brianna Kablack, a Master of Global Policy Studies candidate at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, to discuss domestic extremism. Their talk examines the evolution and developments that Owen has seen in the course of reporting on domestic extremism. These f...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Josh Rogin, journalist for the Washington Post and CNN , joins the podcast to discuss his new book, Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the 21st Century . Rogin details the response of the Trump administration to China, and describes the groups that had influence within the White House in helping to shape policy.   This talk took place at the Un...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Sean McFate, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and professor of strategy at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, discusses his book The New Rules of War: How America Can Win Against Russia, China, and Other Threats . McFate argues that the lack of strategic success achieved by the U.S. military over the last 30 to 40 years stems not from a l...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma we listen to a talk from Eli Lake, a national security journalism fellow at the Clements Center and a syndicated columnist on foreign affairs for Bloomberg . Lake shares his thoughts on what he describes as the "new non-interventionism," comprised of those thinkers, scholars, and policy makers who oppose continued U.S. presence around the world in pursuit of a...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Doyle Hodges, executive editor of the Texas National Security Review, sits down with Hilary Matfess (a Ph. D. candidate at Yale University and a Peace Scholar Fellow at the United States Institute for Peace), and Robert Nagel (a postdoctoral research fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security), to discuss gender in conflict and the issu...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Frank Gavin, chair of the editorial board of the Texas National Security Review , sits down with Philip Zelikow to discuss his new book, The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916 - 1917 . Gavin and Zelikow explore the story of the peace talks and what might have happened had they succeeded. Moreover, Zelikow explores why this story...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Paul Edgar, associate director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sits down with Gen. (ret.) David Petraeus, currently serving as the director of the KKR Global Institute. During the conversation, Petraeus discusses China and other challenges facing U.S. national security after the Trump administration.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Prof. Sarah Paine of the U.S. Naval War College examines a variety of explanations for why the Cold War ended, when it did, and how it did. Paine does not arrive at a single answer but paints a much richer portrait of the fascinating events that led to a substantial shift in world order.

In this episode of Horns, Nina Jankowicz, , discusses her book, How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict . Jankowicz's book covers Russian disinformation efforts in Estonia, Georgia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, and the United States. She argues that disinformation shouldn't be viewed strictly from a technical perspective, since successful disinformati...

The military is one of the most trusted institutions in American society. But the question of how the military views itself is different than that and one that has significant implications. Recently, the Texas National Security Review published an article titled, " From Citizen Soldier to Secular Saint: The Societal Implications of Military Exceptionalism ," that looks at the implications of milit...

On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill delivered a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. This speech, known as "The Sinews of Peace" speech, became famous for the phrase that Churchill coined about the fall of the "Iron Curtain" across Europe.   To mark its 75th anniversary, the Clements Center assembled a panel to discuss the speech itself, the context in which it was given, and its end...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Paul Edgar, associate director of the Clements Center, sits down with Ray Takeyh to discuss his book, The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty . Takeyh argues that, contrary to popular belief, the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq was not the most pivotal event in shaping Iran's destiny. He argues that Mossadeq's expu...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Thomas Schwartz of Vanderbilt University, discusses his book, Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography . Few figures in American history are as controversial or divisive as Henry Kissinger. Schwartz argues that Kissinger, while mostly associated with international diplomacy and international affairs, is best understood by understanding him as...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Dulce Garcia, executive director of Border Angels, an organization that provides outreach to asylum seekers and border crossers, joins the podcast to discuss the challenges faced with immigration policy and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Garcia talks about the security implications of immigration and asylum policy, and the human implications of the choi...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sits down with Dan Blumenthal of the American Enterprise Institute to discuss his book, The China Nightmare: The Grand Ambitions of a Decaying State . Blumenthal's thesis is that China is a rising power with extraordinary strategic capabilities that make it a strong...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Ben Rohrbaugh, author of More or Less Afraid of Nearly Everything: Homeland Security, Border, and Disasters in the Twenty-First Century , stops by to discuss the role of the Department of Homeland Security.   Rohrbaugh points out that the department has been something of an unloved stepchild within the government structure, lacking both a consistent and coher...

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Doyle Hodges, executive editor of the Texas National Security Review , sits down with Sam Jackson, assistant professor in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity at the University of Albany, to discuss far right-wing, antigovernment groups in the United States. In particular, Hodges and Jackson focus on the group, the Oath...