Upcoming Events
Blinking Red: Crisis and Compromise in American Intelligence After 9/11An event co-sponsored by the Clements Center and Strauss CenterThursday, Jan 23, 2014 | 12:15 pm | SRH 3.122After the September 11 attacks, the 9/11 Commission argued that the United States needed a powerful leader, a spymaster, to forge the scattered intelligence bureaucracies into a singular enterprise to vanquish America’s new enemies—stateless international terrorists. In the midst of the 2004 presidential election, Congress and the president remade the post–World War II national security infrastructure in less than five months, creating the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and a National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC).
Moral Man and Immoral Foreign Policy: The Ironies of International PoliticsSponsored by the Clements CenterMonday, Feb 10, 2014 | 12:15 pm | Eastwoods Room, Texas UnionDr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary – the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world. 
National Security Challenges Ahead for the United StatesAn event co-sponsored by the Clements Center, Alexander Hamilton Society, Barry Goldwater Society, and AEI on CampusThursday, Feb 13, 2014 | 5:30 pm | Bass Lecture HallJohn R. Bolton, a diplomat and a lawyer, has spent many years in public service. From August 2005 to December 2006, he served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. From 2001 to 2005, he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security. 
New World, Old Wisdom: Foreign Policy and the Classics with Bruce ThorntonSponsored by the Clements Center, Department of History, and the Thomas Jefferson CenterWednesday, Feb 26, 2014 | 12:15 pm | Eastwoods Room, Texas UnionUntil around 1800, states viewed foreign policy much as Thucydides did: as assuming a constant human nature driven by fear, self-interest, or honor. As such, war was considered a constant of human life, and peace “just a name,” as Plato says. The modern world rejected this realism, believing that human nature is perfectible, that states could be motivated by a “harmony of interests” that could be codified in international laws and covenants. 
The Generals: American Military Command from WWII to TodaySponsored by the Clements CenterMonday, Mar 03, 2014 | 12:15 pm | SRH 3.122Thomas E. Ricks has made a close study of America’s military leaders for three decades, and in The Generals, he chronicles the widening gulf between performance and accountability among the top brass of the U.S. military. While history has been kind to the American generals of World War II—Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley—it has been less kind to others, such as Koster, Franks, Sanchez, and Petraeus. Ricks sets out to explain why that is. 
Realpolitik: Ancient to Modern with Arthur EcksteinSponsored by the Clements Center, Department of History, and the Thomas Jefferson CenterWednesday, Mar 19, 2014 | 12:15 pm | Eastwoods Room, Texas UnionIt is clear that the foundations of Realist international systems theory, which we see in modern university political science departments (as well as in the State Department) can be found in the thinking of ancient intellectuals. That is, ancients understood that states existed in an anarchy without international law, that this required them to engage consistently in power-maximizing behavior (power-maximizing was natural); and since all states were engaged in this power-maximizing activity, frictions and wars between them were naturally frequent. 
The History Behind the Hustle: Petrodollars, Abscam, and Arab-American Political Activism, 1973-1981Co-sponsored by the Clements Center and Middle Eastern StudiesThursday, Mar 20, 2014 | 4:00 pm | History Department, First FloorThe sharp spike in the price of oil in the early 1970s provided petroleum-producing countries with enormous revenues--petrodollars--to invest in the global economy. By the second half of the decade, there was widespread fear in the United States that Arab governments, companies, and individuals were using their vast wealth the "buy up America." 
The National Security Agency at the CrossroadsCo-sponsored by the Clements Center and Strauss CenterThursday, Apr 03, 2014 | 8:30 am | AT&T Executive Education and Conference CenterThe Intelligence Studies Project is a joint venture of the Strauss Center and Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, aiming to encourage policy-relevant academic inquiry into the past, present, and future of intelligence agencies and the legal, policy, and technological environments in which they operate. 
The Clements Center Presents U.S. Senator Marco RubioClick on link for a full list of co-sponsorsTuesday, Apr 15, 2014 | 4:00pm | Blanton Museum AuditoriumU.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) will be speaking at the University of Texas on Tuesday, April 15th at 4:00pm. This event is free and open to the public but advance registration is required. 
Isolationism: Policies of the Past and Lessons for TodayCo-sponsored by the Clements Center and Alexander Hamilton SocietyWednesday, Apr 16, 2014 | 5:15 pm | SRH 3.124The Associated Press reports, “Americans’ Isolationism on the Rise.” Ron Paul captured 23% of the vote in the 2012 New Hampshire primary. Some are now talking about his son, Sen. Rand Paul, as the front-runner for the GOP nomination. |
