Horns of a Dilemma
247 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 21 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 127 ratingsBrought to you by the Texas National Security Review, this podcast features lectures, interviews, and panel discussions at the University of Texas.
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Episodes
The Multiple Collisions Involved in the War in Ukraine
April 26, 2024 06:00 - 31 minutes - 29 MBThe Clements Center for National Security, the Center for European Studies and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies hosted Michael Kimmage, Professor of History at Catholic University, for a book talk on his upcoming release Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability.
Leadership Lessons From Our Top Presidents
April 19, 2024 06:00 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBThe Clements Center for National Security, the LBJ Presidential Library and the UT-Austin History Department hosted Talmage Boston, historian and partner at the Dallas law firm Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton, LLP, for a book talk on How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons From Our Top Presidents.
South Korea's Grand Strategy
April 12, 2024 10:00 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBOn Wednesday, April 10, the Clements-Strauss Asia Policy Program hosted Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Pardo discussed his book, South Korea’s Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny.
Fighting in Iraq's Triangle of Death
April 05, 2024 10:00 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBOn Tuesday, March 26, the Clements Center for National Security, the Army ROTC and the UT-Austin History Department hosted Kelly Eads and Dan Morgan for a book talk on their recent release: Black Hearts and Painted Guns: A Battalion’s Journey into Iraq’s Triangle of Death.
Understanding the Defense Department's Industrial Base Problems
March 23, 2024 16:52 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBMarshall Kosloff, the Clements Center National Security media and journalism fellow, moderated a discussion with Jeff Decker, the managing director of Tech Transfer for Defense at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability, and Noah Sheinbaum, the founder of Frontdoor Defense, about their recent article, "Shining a Light on the Defense Department’s Industrial Base Problems."
George Shultz and the End of the Cold War
March 15, 2024 06:00 - 37 minutes - 34 MBPhilip Taubman, a lecturer at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, discussed his latest book, In the Nation’s Service: The Life and Times of George P. Shultz. The conversation touched on the legacy of Secretary Shultz, his approach to the Soviet Union, and is filled with anecdotes from Philip's time in Moscow at the end of the Cold War.
AI and Making the Supply Chain More Robust
March 08, 2024 07:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBDr. Meg Reiss, the founder and CEO of of SolidIntel Inc., sat down with Marshal Kosloff, the national security media and journalism fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, to discuss supply chain risks and how the risks could be mitigated with investments in new technology. The conversation explored the upstream challenges, how to manage China's role in supply chains, and how to minimize risk factors for industry.
America's Effort to Shield Itself
March 05, 2024 07:00 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBCharles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government, spoke about the history of isolationism in the United States, its role in the formulation of American foreign policy, and how the idea is now resurgent in U.S. domestic politics. The conversation is based on Charlie's most recent book, Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Its...
The United States and Afghanistan Before the Soviet Invasion
February 23, 2024 07:00 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBIn this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Aaron O’Connell, associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and director of research for the Clements Center for National Security, hosts a discussion with Rob Rakove, a lecturer in Stanford University's Program in International Relations. They discuss Rakove’s new book, Days of Opportunity: The United States and Afghanistan Before the Soviet Invasion.
European Security and the Russo-Ukrainian War
February 09, 2024 07:00 - 41 minutes - 38 MBPaul Edgar, the associate director of the William P. Clements, Jr. Center for National Security, moderated a discussion with Amb. Kurt Volker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2008-2009, and Gen. Tod Wolters, the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, about the state of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the future of European security, and the impact of the conflict on global security. The conversation explored the evolution of President Putin's approach to relations with the West, the changes in Ru...
Foreign Policy In the Johnson Years
January 11, 2024 07:00 - 1 hour - 56.4 MBMarc Selverstone, the director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, co-chair of the Center’s Presidential Recordings Program, and professor of presidential studies, moderated a discussion with Francis Gavin, the Giovanni Agnelli distinguised professor and director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University; Sheyda Jahanbani, an associate professor at the University of Kansas...
China's Digital Data Trafficking
January 05, 2024 14:41 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBAynne Kokas, the C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, spoke about her book Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty. Kokas explained how the asymmetry in digital regulations between the United States and China, along with practices of private industry, have helped empower Beijing's broader effort to control digital data.
Government Historians and Engagement with Classified Information
January 02, 2024 19:17 - 36 minutes - 33 MBCarter Burwell, a Public Interest Declassification Board board member, moderated a discussion with Erin Mahan, Chief Historian at the Office of the Secretary of Defense; Adam Howard, the director of the Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State; and John Fox, a historian at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The conversation discussed the role of historians and archivists inside the U.S. government, the role that historians play in preserving institutional knowledge, and how ...
The Media, Secrecy and Transparency
December 29, 2023 14:57 - 46 minutes - 42.3 MBBen Powell, a Public Interest Declassification Board board member, moderated a discussion with Adam Goldman, a reporter at the New York Times; Nomaan Merchant, a reporter at the Associated Press; Dustin Volz, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal; and Josh Gerstein, a journalist with Politico. The conversation talked about the role of the media in holding government accountable, the use of the Freedom of Information Act, and how the classification issue impacts the media business and the j...
A Conversation with Sen. John Cornyn
December 22, 2023 07:00 - 33 minutes - 30.2 MBDr. Will Inboden sat down with Sen. John Cornyn to discuss the issues of declassification and transparency, along with the ongoing debate about the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The two also discussed the role of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Congressional oversight, and how Section 702's renewal is important for U.S. national security
The Future of Presidential Libraries
December 19, 2023 07:00 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBPaul Noel Chretien, a Public Interest Declassification Board Board Member and retired Central Intelligence Agency Officer, moderated a discussion with Tim Naftali, a clinical associate professor of History and Public Policy at New York University; Matthew Connelly, a professor of History at Columbia University; Warren Finch, the former director of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library; and Mark Lawrence, the director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. The conversation explore...
Using Technology to Solve the Declassification Problem
December 15, 2023 16:25 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBAdam Klein moderated a panel with Jared Abrams, a research associate at Applied Research Laboratories; Ivan Lee, the founder & CEO of Datasaur.ai; Alex Joel, a senior project director and adjunct professor at Washington College of Law, American University; and Ezra Cohen, the former chair of Public Interest Declassification Board and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. The conversation touched on the role of technology in helping to manage classified material and the dec...
Classification and Scholarship
December 12, 2023 07:00 - 46 minutes - 42.1 MBAaron O'Connell, the director of research at the Clements Center for National Security, moderated a panel with Jim Goldgeier, a visiting scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation; Deborah Pearlstein, co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy; Jeremi Suri, the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at UT Austin; and Sheena Greitens, the founding director of the Asia Policy Program at the University of Texas at Austin. T...
Counter-Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities
December 08, 2023 07:00 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBChristy Abizaid, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, spoke about the duties of the center, terrorist threats to the United States and the role of counter-terrorism during an era of strategic competition. She also participated in a moderated question and answer session with Mark Pomar, discussing U.S. foreign policy, the counter-terrorism mission, and what it is like to work with in the intelligence community.
Russian Opposition to Totalitarianism
December 05, 2023 18:41 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MBDr. Mark Pomar, a senior national security fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, moderated a discussion with Alexander Podrabinek, a Soviet and Russian human rights activist, journalist, and writer. The conversation explored the drivers of the return of totalitarian rule in Russia. The two also discussed the role of propaganda in shaping domestic opinion and the ongoing Russian resistance to authoritarianism.
The Making of the American Hegemon
December 01, 2023 07:00 - 49 minutes - 45 MBSean Mirski, a lawyer and U.S. foreign policy scholar, discussed his recent book, We May Dominate the World, which explores the rise of American hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Mirski discusses how the United States pushed European powers out of the hemisphere while simultaneously expanding its power abroad. The conversation then pivoted to the anxiety great powers often feel about losing power and what that may mean for other reiognal powers and their foreign policy.
Keeping the Nation's Secrets
November 28, 2023 07:00 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MBDr. Michael G. Vickers, former under secretary of defense for intelligence, joined Dr. Stephen Slick for a moderated discussion on his latest book, By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy. The conversation discussed the reasons for writing the book and the reasons why senior leaders should share as much as they can about intelligence. The two also discussed the U.S. response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the war against al-Qaeda, ...
How Will the Russo-Ukrainian War End?
November 24, 2023 07:00 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBOn this episode of Horns of Dilemma, Sheena Greitens moderated a panel discussion about the Russo-Ukrainian war and broader challenges to European security. The conversation featured Gen. Vince Brooks, U.S. Army ( Ret.), former Commander, United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/United States Forces Korea; Susan Colbourn, associate director of the Program in American Grand Strategy, Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University; Simon Miles, assistant professor, Sanford School of ...
Investigating Russian War Crimes: Ukraine’s Quest for Justice
November 21, 2023 07:00 - 42 minutes - 39 MBAmb. Clint Williamson, Lead Coordinator of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA) for Ukraine, spoke about the Russian military's war crimes in Ukraine and the efforts to investigate and prosecute Russian war criminals. The conversation began with an overview of the war and then shifted to the way in which investigators can collect evidence for international prosecution.
Seeds of Division Between Russia and China
November 17, 2023 07:00 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBDavid A. Merkel, managing director of Summit International Advisors, LLC, spoke about the Sino-Soviet split during the Cold War, the two sides' conflicting interests, and what that means for great power competition. The conversation also explored U.S. policy options in Central Asia and options for further engagement in the region.
A Conversation with Dr. Paul Edgar and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
November 07, 2023 07:00 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBDr. Paul Edgar, the executive director of the William P. Clements, Jr. Center for National Security at the University of Texas-Austin, sat down with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson to discuss energy and national security. The conversation focused on energy security, its relevance for U.S. national security, and how a more effective energy policy would allow for a more robust response to global crises.
A Conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken
November 01, 2023 06:00 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBSecretary of State Antony J. Blinken sat down for a conversation on the state of foreign affairs with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. The conversation touched on America's role in the world, the war in Ukraine, and the on-going challenges posed by illegal migration and the fentanyl trade. The two also discussed President Biden's belief that the world is now at an inflection point that requires continued American diplomatic leadership.
Israel's 9/11
October 20, 2023 06:00 - 55 minutes - 51 MBOn this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Professor Stephen Slick, Dr. Paul Edgar, and Ms. Simone Ledeen spoke about Hamas' terrorist attack on Oct. 7th in Israel. The conversation began with a discussion about terrorism, human cruelty and Hamas' wanton killing of civilians in the attack. The three panelists then discussed different facets of the expected Israeli response, ranging from the role of the intelligence services to the operational planning for a ground operation. The conversation als...
China's Law of the Sea
October 03, 2023 06:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBOn this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Isaac B. Kardon discussed his book China's Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order. Kardon discussed his research into how the Chinese Communist Party thinks about maritime sovereignty, how it applies this thinking to individual disputes in its surrounding seas, and what that means for the United States and its allies. The discussion focused on how the Chinese Communist Party views international law, the role of The United Nations Convention on ...
Confronting Saddam Hussein
September 29, 2023 06:00 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBOn this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Melvyn Leffler talks about his book, Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq. Leffler discusses why he decided to write a book about the invasion of Iraq and how he went about doing so. He then outlined what he learned about this period of American history and how President Bush helped to shape U.S. policy, as Washington debated whether or not to invade. He then discussed the role of fear and anxiety and how these two emotion...
The Nuclear Club
May 08, 2023 06:00 - 43 minutes - 40 MBOn this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Jonathan Hunt talks about his book, The Nuclear Club: How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam. Hunt starts out with an anecdote about the origins of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty under U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Special Assistant for National Security Affairs Walt Whitman Rostow. He then outlines the core argument of his book: that parallel to the nuclear revolution was a “counter-revolution” to prevent ...
Lessons From A White House Intelligence Briefer
May 05, 2023 06:00 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBOn this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Mission Integration Beth Sanner delivers a candid and enriching lecture about being an intelligence professional at the highest level in the White House. Among many duties, this job involved serving as U.S. President Donald Trump's intelligence briefer. Ms. Sanner starts off her talk by describing the history of the president's daily intelligence briefing, then dives into how the briefings are crafted....
European Security After the War in Ukraine
May 03, 2023 06:00 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBOn this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, William Inboden, editor-in-chief of the Texas National Security Review and executive director of the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin, sat down with Amb. Kay Bailey Hutchison, former United States senator from Texas and, later, the U.S. permanent representative to NATO. The two had a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation about European security and global energy policy. First, the two discussed Inboden’s new ...
Reagan's War Stories
May 01, 2023 06:00 - 29 minutes - 26.6 MBIn this week’s Horns of a Dilemma, Maj. Ben Griffin, the Chief of the Military History Division at West Point, discusses his new book, Reagan's War Stories: A Cold War Presidency. In the book, Ben tells three stories about United States President Ronald Reagan, the President who ushered in the end of the Cold War. The book touches on Reagan’s relationship with many writers and figures from pop culture, including writer Tom Clancy. In part of this episode, Griffin discusses the relationship ...
The Bureau of Things That Keep You Up At Night
March 31, 2023 10:22 - 32 minutes - 29.3 MBPrincipal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ann Ganzer of the State Department's Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation recently visited the University of Texas, Austin. In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Ganzer sits down with Clements Center Associate Director Paul Edgar to discuss many of the issues she discussed with students. The issues under her purview are the things that keep policy makers up at night--the proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass...
Corps Capabilities: Redesigning the Marine Corps for the Modern Indo-Pacific
March 24, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 55.1 MBIn this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Marine Corps Gen. (Ret) Robert Neller joins University of Texas, Austin Professor Paul Pope to discuss the recent force structure and doctrine changes in the Marine Corps, intended to create a force ready to fight a war with China. Neller begins with a basic overview of the contemporary security environment, and traces the requirements that emerge all the way through hard choices about the composition, training, and mission of the Marine Corps. T...
Hard Power, Hard Choices, and Cold, Hard Cash
March 17, 2023 11:00 - 1 hour - 64.7 MBIn this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, addresses the challenging questions of how to allocate defense spending to meet American strategic interests around the globe. Eaglen discusses the relationship between strategy and budget, as well as how "reality always gets a vote" and often results in a need to spend money in areas that were not projected to be strategic priorities. Eaglen engages in a broad-ranging questi...
Dealers in Hope? Leadership in the Russia-Ukraine War
March 10, 2023 12:00 - 46 minutes - 42.3 MBNapoleon once said that leaders are "dealers in hope." While such a label might seem to fit Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky, it fits more awkwardly on Russian President Vladimir Putin. How has the leadership of these two men shaped the onset and current progress of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Would the invasion have happened at all, or if had happened would it have progressed differently under different leadership? These are the fundamental questions addressed in this week's Horns...
The Hard Politics of Soft Power
March 03, 2023 12:00 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBIn this week's Horns of a Dilemma, Daniel Runde of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, speaks about his new book, The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership Through Soft Power. Liberals and conservatives are frequently divided over foreign policy preferences, with conservatives favoring hard power, such as military might, and liberals emphasizing soft power elements, such as leadership in international organizations. Runde approaches foreign policy from a conserva...
Transition in a Time of Transition
February 24, 2023 09:27 - 43 minutes - 50.2 MBThe turnover between U.S. presidential administrations can be a time of uncertainty and vulnerability. In this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we hear from former National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley, who discusses the forthcoming volume, Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama. This book, a collection of transition memoranda prepared by National Security Council staffers, reflections by the principals, and analysis by scholars, is an unprecedented gli...
A Hard Act to Follow: Explaining Authoritarian Succession
February 17, 2023 09:46 - 36 minutes - 41.6 MBA year ago, as Russia's aggressive war in Ukraine was proving not to be the quick and easy victory Vladimir Putin had expected, some observers speculated that the bungled decision to invade his neighbor could be Putin's undoing. The idea of a Russian state without Putin raised alluring prospects of reform. In this week's Horns of a Dilemma, American University Professor Joseph Torigian discusses the dynamics of authoritarian succession. His book, Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite ...
What Happens if the Balloon Goes Up With China?
February 10, 2023 12:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBIn this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen to a discussion between Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and Hal Brands, Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. Brands and Inboden discuss a book written by Brands and Michael Beckley, Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict With China. While many pundits project conflict between the United States and...
The Truth Shall Set You Free: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in the Cold War
January 27, 2023 10:49 - 1 hour - 57.7 MBOn this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma Clement Center Senior National Security Fellow Mark Pomar, who helped to oversee the Russian language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty during the Cold War, discusses his book, Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Pomar is joined by Professor Kiril Avramov in a great discussion of both how the Russian language broadcasts helped to advance American interests, and how informa...
The Contradictions of J. Edgar Hoover
January 20, 2023 14:13 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MBMany great figures in American history are full of contradictions. Thomas Jefferson wrote stirringly about liberty while owning human beings as property. Woodrow Wilson was both the idealistic author of the 14 Points, and a racist who re-segregated the federal work force. But few figures in American history embody as many contradictions as the two featured in this week's Horns of a Dilemma: Lyndon Johnson, and J. Edgar Hoover. Yale Professor Beverly Gage discusses her new biography of Hoover...
The Arc of a Covenant
January 13, 2023 12:00 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MBThis week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma features author and public intellectual Walter Russell Mead speaking about his book, The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People. As Mead discusses, the trope that American foreign policy toward Israel can be explained by the outsized influence of Jewish people in American government is common, not only among fringe thinkers and conspiracy theorists, but even among audiences that otherwise display considerable ...
Reconstructing the Roots of January 6
January 06, 2023 12:00 - 56 minutes - 51.9 MBOn the second anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, Horns of a Dilemma features a talk by University of Texas, Austin Professor Jeremi Suri about his new book, Civil War by Other Means: America's Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy. In seeking to understand the events of January 6, 2021, Suri looks to the American Civil War and the period of reconstruction that followed. He finds that, far from being unprecedented, the type of political violence seen at the U.S. Capitol two years ag...
Dauntless Courage at Midway
December 23, 2022 14:21 - 40 minutes - 36.9 MBMany stories of the Battle of Midway highlight the role of cryptography in breaking Japanese codes and the herculean effort to repair USS Yorktown after the battle of the Coral Sea so that she could participate in the battle. In this week's Horns of a Dilemma, author Steven McGregor highlights a less-known but equally important aspect: the SBD Dauntless dive bomber. Dive bombing was a crucial technology during World War II that pushed the bounds of aerodynamics by requiring an aircraft that ...
The Ghost of Missiles Past
December 16, 2022 13:36 - 46 minutes - 52.8 MBThe deployment of the Soviet SS-20 missile system in the 1970s and 1980s, and U.S. plans to deploy the Pershing II and Ground Launched Cruise Missile in response, spurred a crisis within NATO over U.S. nuclear deterrence in Europe. Susan Colbourn, associate director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, tells the story of this period in her new book, Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons that Nearly Destroyed NATO. In this week's ep...
Freedom and the Rule of Law
December 09, 2022 15:59 - 35 minutes - 40.7 MBNathan Law first came to international prominence as a student leader of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong in 2014. In the years that followed, he was elected as the youngest parliamentarian in Hong Kong's history, debarred from holding office, convicted for his activities in leading student protests, jailed, released, and exiled--all before his 30th birthday. In this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Law joins Professor Sheena Greitens, director of the Asia Policy Program at the Unive...
China's Campaign Against the Uyghur People
December 02, 2022 12:00 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBIn this week's epsidode of Horns of a Dilemma, Sheena Greitens, head of the Asia Policy Program at the University of Texas, Austin, joins author Nury Turkel to discuss Turkel's book, No Escape: The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs. Turkel, who was born in a re-education camp during China's culturual revolution, uses his own experiences, as well as interviews with survivors of the camps in western China to tell the story of China's campaign against the Uyghur people. The picture ...