Horns of a Dilemma

In this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we hear from retired U.S. Army Colonel Dr. Christopher Kolenda about his new book, Zero Sum Victory: What We Get Wrong About War. Kolenda draws on his experience in Iraq and Afghanistan to help explain why it feels as if the United States has had what he calls "the inverse Midas touch" when it comes to interventions: everything we've tried has bogged down into quagmire or defeat. Kolenda's argues that U.S. leaders aren't adept at identifying measures of success other than total victory, that they are slow to learn and adapt, and that when the decision is made to withdraw, they often mishandled that process, as well. This talk was given at the University of Texas, Austin.

This week's Horns of a Dilemma may be a first in that it deals with a work of fiction. Author David McCloskey joins Stephen Slick of the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas, Austin, to discuss his new novel, Damascus Station. In the novel, McCloskey draws on his years as a CIA analyst to lend realism to both the civil war in Syria (the setting for the novel) and to the culture and activities of the CIA. The book talk is followed by a discussion between McCloskey and Slick about McCloskey's perspective on intelligence and the CIA in particular. This talk was held at the University of Texas, Austin.

Joseph Stalin said at the 1943 Tehran Conference that World War II would be won with "British brains, American steel, and Soviet blood." Indeed, the scale of Soviet losses in the war is nearly unimaginable: Some estimates place the number of military and civilian deaths at over 20 million. But the scale of Russian losses, and the bitter hatred and brutality that characterized combat on the Eastern front, tends to obscure that Germany and the Soviet Union had cooperated militarily for nearly two decades before the Nazi invasion in 1941. Ian Johnson, of Notre Dame University and a former Clements Center fellow, discusses this cooperation in this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, as detailed in his book, Faustian Bargain: The Soviet-German Partnership and the Origins of the Second World War. Johnson lays out the ways in which these two rogue states helped each other to develop the militaries that ultimately engaged in some of the most desperate and deadly combat of World War II. This talk was given at the University of Texas, Austin.

In last week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we heard from Professor Jane Vaynman how emerging technologies may influence the future of arms control. In this week's episode, we hear from Tim Morrison, currently of the Hudson Institute and formerly a deputy advisor to the president for national security in the Trump administration, how arms control is influenced by different positions staked out by the major U.S. political parties. Morrison focuses particularly on negotiations surrounding the extension of the new START treaty between the United States and Russia, and also discusses the role of China, a growing nuclear power with whom the United States does not have any bilateral nuclear arms control agreements. This talk was held at the University of Texas, Austin, and was hosted by the Clements Center. Note: Mr. Morrison is employed by Boeing, which competes for U.S. missile defense contracts. In this talk, he was speaking in his capacity as a Hudson Institute fellow, and not as a Boeing employee.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we hear from Professor Jane Vaynman, author of "Better Monitoring and Better Spying: The Impact of Emerging Technology on Arms Control," which appears in Vol. 4/Iss. 4 of the Texas National Security Review, a special issue dedicated to the memory and legacy of Janne Nolan. Vaynman explores how advances in the technology of drones, small satellites, artificial intelligence, and additive manufacturing may impact the future of arms control agreements and verification. This article was the winner of the Janne Nolan prize competition, sponsored by the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies as part of the Future Strategy Forum.

The People's Republic of China has risen over the past two decades to become the world's largest economy, when measured by purchasing power parity. As Chinese global economic interests and influence have expanded so, too, has the size and capability of the Chinese military. In this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Thomas Shugart, adjunct senior fellow with the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, discusses the implications of growing Chinese military power. Shugart frames his discussion in terms of what he calls the "Malacca Dilemma": Since much of Chinese trade and almost all Chinese energy imports must flow through strategic chokepoints controlled by the U.S. Navy or its allies and partners, Chinese leaders want to be able to protect their interests in these vital regions. But the same capabilities that allow them to protect their trading interests also allow them to threaten, intimidate, and coerce other regional countries, and may give Chinese communist leaders the tools needed to challenge or change the global order that has defined the region for decades. This talk was given at the University of Texas, Austin, and jointly sponsored by the Strauss Center and the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

While most people think of North Korea today as an isolated pariah state, the "hermit kingdom" exercised significant influence among Third World nations during the Cold War. North Korean leader Kim Il Sung sent advisors to assist African liberation movements, trained anti-imperialist guerrilla fighters, and completed building projects in developing countries. State-run media coverage of events in the Third World shaped the worldview of many North Koreans and helped them imagine a unified global anti-imperialist front with North Korea at the vanguard. In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Professor Benjamin Young of Virginia Commonwealth University discusses these developments, as detailed in his book, Guns, Guerrillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World. This talk was sponsored by the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and was hosted by Professor Sheena Greitens of the LBJ School at the University of Texas, Austin.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we hear from Elbridge Colby, co-founder of the Marathon Initiative, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, and author of The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Competition. Colby makes the case for a U.S. defense strategy focused on preventing Chinese hegemony in Asia by denying the Chinese the ability to achieve faits d'accompli--completed acts that violate the security and sovereignty of American's allies and partners in Asia, thereby threatening the defensive perimeter critical to protecting American interests. Colby's was the principal author of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, and his work continues to influence the formulation of strategy today. This event was hosted at the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and is introduced by Professor Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center.

With the release of the Pandora Papers, news reports are filled with stories derived from computer files once thought to be hidden from public scrutiny. While the source of the Pandora Papers leak isn't yet known, the pattern of leaked computer files shaping international relations has become increasingly common as information migrates to "the cloud." In addition to the Pandora Papers, the release of the Panama Papers revealed banking secrets of many international leaders, frequently suggesting involvement in activities they would have preferred not be made public. James Shires discussed the political role of "hack and leak" operations, many of which involve cloud-based data, in his article in Vol. 3/Iss. 4 of Texas National Security Review (our special issue on cyber competition). In this week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Christina Morillo, a cyber security expert with substantial experience in the private sector, discusses the nuts and bolts of cloud security. While the discussion is a bit more technically detailed than many episodes of the podcast, listeners will find that having a better understanding of how cloud security works will help them better to understand the context in which events like the release of the Pandora Papers, hack and leak operations, and even cloud-based attacks on computer control and data acquisition systems all take place. This talk was sponsored by the Strauss Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and hosted by Wendy Nather, a senior cyber security fellow at the Strauss Center.

In the wake of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, much attention has focused on the fate of Afghan citizens who risked their lives to aid U.S. forces. The hastily organized evacuation of Afghan refugees has frequently drawn unfavorable comparison to the evacuation and resettlement of Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon in 1975. As the guest in this week's podcast demonstrates, however, the story of how the United States came to accept Vietnamese refugees is far more nuanced than many comparisons suggest. Professor Amanda Demmer is the author of After Saigon's Fall: Refugees and U.S.-Vietnamese Relations, 1975-2000, published this year by Cambridge University Press. In the book, and in her talk, Demmer describes how the process of accepting refugees following the war in Vietnam both shaped and was shaped by significant movements in domestic and international politics, including a re-assertion of Congressional power in foreign relations, changing domestic and international norms regarding refugees, and an interlocking of humanitarian and human rights narratives. Ultimately, Demmer argues, understanding the story of refugees is central to understanding the normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam. This talk was sponsored by the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and was hosted by Mark Lawrence, an associate professor of history at the University of Texas, Austin, and director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum.

Grand strategy can be a vexing term. While many people understand grand strategy to be an important expression of the way in which countries wield their power, there can often be confusion as to exactly what the term "grand strategy" encompasses. (For listeners eager to explore more on this, Vol. 2, Iss. 1 of Texas National Security Review contains three excellent scholarly articles on grand strategy.) In this episode of Horns of Dilemma, we hear from a collection of authors and editors who are part of a recent book project arguing for a more capacious understanding of grand strategy. Rethinking American Grand Strategy, published by Oxford University Press this past spring, contains a collection of essays looking at different frameworks, narratives, figures, and approaches to grand strategy. Two of the editors of the volume — Chris Nichols and Andrew Preston — are joined by three authors — Adriane Lentz-Smith, Charlie Edel, and Will Inboden — to discuss the book and their contributions to it. This event was sponsored by the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and hosted by Professor Jeremy Suri of the University of Texas, Austin.

The 2016 presidential election was a milestone in modern American politics, not only for the surprising victory of a candidate whom many pundits and observers had considered unlikely to win, but also for the degree to which foreign powers attempted to influence the electoral process and outcome. In this week's Horns of a Dilemma, we hear from Emily Harding, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and formerly the deputy staff director for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Harding details the committee's broad-reaching bipartisan investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. She discusses interactions with the concurrent FBI investigation, as well as the ways in which the outcomes of the Senate investigation helped to make the 2018 midterm elections and 2020 presidential election more secure against the types of interference that occurred in 2016. This talk was jointly sponsored by the Clements Center for National Security and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas, Austin. The talk was delivered outdoors due to COVID mitigation policies, so listeners will notice some wind noise, which we have done our best to minimize in post-production.

In the 1950s, researchers at the RAND Corporation ran two different wargames exploring questions of nuclear strategy. Both were named the Cold War Game, known to the participants as COW. One, run by the Mathematics Analysis Division (MAD), abstracted questions of the ethics of nuclear war in order to seek reproducible results. The other, run by the Social Sciences Division (SSD), reflected concerns over the ethics and implications of nuclear weapons, resulting in less-certain outcomes. The history of these games sheds light not only on nuclear strategy, but also on the balance between logic and emotion in national security decision-making. Doyle Hodges, executive editor of the Texas National Security Review (TNSR), talks with John R. Emery, the author of Moral Choices Without Moral Language: 1950s Political-Military Wargaming at the RAND Corporation, which appears in Vol 4/Iss 4 of TNSR. This issue is a special issue dedicated to the legacy of Janne Nolan, a founding member of the TNSR editorial board who passed away in 2019.

With the fall of President Ashraf Ghani's government and the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces, most of Afghanistan is now under the control of the Taliban. In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we are joined by Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors at Brookings, and by Scott R. Anderson, a visiting fellow in governance studies at Brookings, a senior editor and counsel for Lawfare, and a senior fellow with the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. Felbab-Brown and Anderson discuss the outlook for the Taliban as they seek to shift from insurgency to governance. The discussion covers questions of formal legal recognition, as well as questions of legitimacy and capacity for governance. Our guests explain why exercising power as the government of Afghanistan is likely to be more challenging for the Taliban than defeating the previous government was. As Dr. Felbab-Brown observed, "it's much easier to be an insurgent than a governor."

Being an editor involves saying "no," quite a bit. 85 percent of submissions to both the Texas National Security Review and War on the Rocks never make it to publication. At the recent Clements Center Summer Seminar on History and Statecraft in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Doyle Hodges, executive editor of TNSR and chief publishing officer of War on the Rocks, and Megan Oprea, managing editor of TNSR, spoke to the assembled students about how to be in the 15 percent that do wind up in our pages. The question of how to write clearly and persuasively for policy audiences is asked frequently by students and practitioners alike. Doyle and Megan decided to reprise their talk for this episode of Horns of a Dilemma.

Mark Twain once said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. The repetition of patterns of events and responses is one reason that scholars and policymakers often turn to the past for insight into how to best deal with contemporary events. It is also why classic works of history and strategy — such as Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War — have become classic and remain relevant. In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Dr. Paul Edgar, associate director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, goes 1,000 years before Thucydides to find enduring lessons as told in an inscription on a statue from the 15th century BCE. While the names of the rulers and powers may not be familiar, Edgar illustrates how the themes of strategy, alliance, and statecraft in great-power competition are familiar and relevant to power struggles today. This talk was recorded at the Summer Seminar on History and Statecraft, sponsored by the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and held in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

The history of nuclear weapons is, thankfully, largely a history of things that haven't happened. Since 1945, nuclear weapons have dominated strategy and statecraft, but they have not been used after the first two bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Professor Frank Gavin of Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, and Chair of the Texas National Security Review editorial board, discusses the history and politics of nuclear strategy and statecraft. His talk is both wide-ranging and specific. Gavin examines the big issues related to nuclear weapons, and the paradoxes of strategy that possession of nuclear weapons creates — such as the fact that the only way to ensure that these terrible weapons are never used is to appear to be credibly poised to use them. This talk was presented as part of the Summer Seminar on History and Statecraft sponsored by the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and held at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Two weeks ago on Horns of a Dilemma, Professor Jim Goldgeier of American University and the Brookings Institution joined Ambassador Alexandra Hall Hall to discuss the thematic connections between the choice in the early 1990s to add new members to the NATO alliance and Britain's choice in 2016 to leave the European Union. In last week's episode, Professor Goldgeier expanded on the history, politics, and consequences of NATO expansion and enlargement. This week, completing the cycle, Ambassador Hall Hall discusses Brexit. Ambassador Hall Hall speaks from personal experience as the senior British diplomat for Brexit issues in the United States, a position from which she ultimately resigned, leaving the British diplomatic corps out of principled disagreement with the way in which the Brexit narrative was being played out. This event was recorded at the Summer Seminar on History and Statecraft sponsored by the Clements Center at the University of Texas, Austin, and held in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

In last week's episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we heard Professor Jim Goldgeier of American University and the Brookings Institution and former British Ambassador Alexandra Hall Hall discuss the thematic connections between the addition of new NATO members after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the dynamics that ultimately led to Brexit. In this episode, Professor Goldgeier goes into more depth on the promises that were or weren't made to Soviet and Russian leaders by NATO and Western leaders in the turbulent period between 1991 and 1993. As Goldgeier explains, even the language used to describe these events — whether "enlargement" or "expansion" — carries shades of meaning that continue to resonate today. This event was recorded live at the Clements Center Summer Seminar on History and Statecraft in Beaver Creek, Colorado, and sponsored by the Clements Center of the University of Texas, Austin.

The admission of new NATO members from the former Soviet Union and Warsaw pact marked an expansion of European multilateral institutions. The growth in membership of European institutions continued until 25 years later, when Britain decided to withdraw from the European Union. In a session recorded at the Clements Center Summer Seminar on History and Statecraft in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Professor Jim Goldgeier and Ambassador Alexandra Hall Hall examine what common themes connect these two events, exploring question of identity, trust in institutions, and the use (or misuse) of history.

American security policy has made use of tripwire forces for many years. One of the most prominent examples cited is the case of Berlin: As Thomas Schelling famously described the logic, the small garrison of US soldiers stationed there during the Cold War weren't militarily capable of defeating the far-larger East German or Soviet forces nearby but, the East Germans or Soviets would be deterred from attacking because any attack would result in the deaths of that small US force, drawing America into a conflict. Our guests today, Professor Dan Reiter of Emery University and Professor Paul Poast of the University of Chicago, argue that Schelling was wrong. Their article, "The Truth About Tripwires: Why Small Force Deployments Do Not Deter Aggression," in Vol 4, Iss 3 of TNSR, argues that deterrence relies almost exclusively on the military value of force deployment, so small token deployments are unlikely to deter a determined attacker. They illustrate their argument with two cases from the Korean peninsula, and a counterfactual example from World War I.

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 democracy promotion, the role of India and the Quad, and supply chain security.

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 republic.

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 powerful patron.

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 and unveiled as part of the upcoming NATO summit in June.

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 findings include the evolution of what she refers to as "suit and tie extremists," as well as the mainstreaming of increasingly extremist views. This talk was sponsored by the Strauss Center and was part of the Brumley Speaker Series.

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 University of Texas at Austin and was sponsored by the Clements Center and the Strauss Center.

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 lack of investment nor a lack of technology, but from the fact that the United States suffers from what he terms "victors curse." 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 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 war on terror.

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 issues surrounding women in the field of security.

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 has never been told. It is an interesting look into how history is shaped and how we understand the past.

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 disinformation takes advantage of preexisting fissures and issues within society and exacerbates divisions and emotions surrounding them. An effective response to disinformation should have a strong human component, and it is impossible to mount an effect campaign against foreign disinformation when some portions of society engage in those same tactics.

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 military exceptionalism. The authors, Heidi Urben, Susan Bryant, and Brett Swaney sit down with Doyle Hodges, executive editor of the Texas National Security Review, to discuss their findings of servicemembers' perception of themselves.

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 enduring impact. The conversation is hosted by Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center, and features David Reynolds, professor of international history at Cambridge University, Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and Tim Riley, director of the National Churchill Museum. You can listen to the speech at the National Churchill Museum.

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 expulsion was the result, at least in large part, of disapproval of fellow Iranian elites rather than a strictly successful CIA coup. Instead, Takeyh states that understanding the rise of the revolution and the downfall of the Shah should focus more on the period in the early 1960s when Pahlavi became increasingly autocratic and separated from his advisers.

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 a domestic political figure whose moves were calculated based on his approval ratings and how he played within the domestic political audience. Schwartz also makes the case that Kissinger's relationship with President Richard Nixon involved rivalry as well as partnership, and was carefully calculated on Kissinger's part to present an image that put him in the best and most favorable light to the American public.

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 choices that are made regarding these topics. This talk was sponsored by the Strauss Center and was part of their Brumley Speaker Series.

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 competitor for the United States. Where his thesis may diverge from conventional wisdom is that he argues China is also beset by significant vulnerabilities including questions of how to deal with dissent and pluralism within their own population, demographic effects of the "one child" policy, and risks posed by a stagnating economy. Blumenthal adds that the most dangerous time in the competition between great powers does not come when one is rising and one is declining, but when a state like China sees the risk that their status may go away and feels the need to lock in gains.

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 coherent organizational culture, as well as at times the perception that it intrudes on the turf of other more established agencies. Although Rohrbaugh acknowledges the case against the Department of Homeland Security, he comes to the conclusion that the department is an important organization in dealing with the threats the United States faces in the 21st century, like infectious diseases, terrorism, right-wing extremism, organized crime, natural disasters, and border security. This talk was sponsored by the Strauss Center at the University of Texas at Austin and was part of the Central America/Mexico Policy Initiative.

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 Keepers. Who are the Oath Keepers? Why were they founded and when? Jackson's book, Oath Keepers: Patriotism and the Edge of Violence in a Right-Wing Antigovernment Group, sheds light on these questions and more.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Will Inboden, executive director at the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sits down with David Adesnik and John Hannah from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, to discuss their recent work, "From Trump to Biden: The Way Ahead for United States National Security." Inboden and the authors identify the successes and failures of Donald Trump's foreign policy. The discussion serves to shine a light on areas where there are opportunities for a bipartisan consensus in foreign policy going forward.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Amb. (ret.) Bonnie Jenkins discusses the array of treaty obligations, international law, and other agreements that make up the arms control and nuclear non-proliferation regime. Paul Pope, senior fellow at the Intelligence Studies Project, introduces Marigny Kirschke-Schwartz, a Brumley fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, to moderate the talk with Amb. Jenkins.

This episode of Horns of a Dilemma features a panel discussion on prospects for civil-military relations in the Joe Biden administration. The discussion brings a wealth of knowledge on civil-military issues, as well as a wealth of experience in administering defense programs. The conversation covers a broad range of topics ranging from the challenges that stemmed from the Donald Trump administration, challenges associated with the presidential transition, as well as what the enduring impacts of the current administration will be on civil-military ties. The discussion is moderated by Jim Golby, senior fellow at the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and features Peter Feaver, professor of political science and public policy at Duke University, Lt. Gen (ret.) Dave Barno, professor at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies , and Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

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 Simon Miles, assistant professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, to discuss his book, Engaging the Evil Empire: Washington, Moscow, and the Beginning of the End of the Cold War. In his book, Miles asserts that the beginning of the thawing of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, usually attributed to the relationship between President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, actually had its roots in the period of 1980 to 1985 under previous Soviet leaders, such as Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev. Miles talks about the effort on the part of both the Soviet Union and the United States to find opportunities for meaningful diplomatic interaction that laid the groundwork for thawing, even at a time when the Cold War was at its height.