Horns of a Dilemma

This episode of Horns of a Dilemma is a powerhouse of intelligence knowledge. Adm. (Ret.) William McRaven, former chancellor of the University of Texas at Austin and retired U.S. Navy four-star admiral, sits down with John Brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to discuss Brennan’s new book, Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, At Home and Abroad. This is a wide-ranging discussion that covers the history of the CIA, the decision-making styles of the presidents Brennan worked for, the events of 9/11, and some of the more controversial projects with which the CIA was involved.   McRaven and Brennan were introduced by Stephen Slick, director of the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Bobby Chesney, director of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Will Inboden, executive director of the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, sit down with Peter Baker and Susan Glasser to discuss their new book, The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Time of James A. Baker III. James Baker was the secretary of state for George H.W. Bush at the end of the Cold War and the man who helped orchestrate the remarkably broad coalition that prosecuted the first Gulf War. While those are substantial diplomatic achievements, Glasser and Baker point out that James Baker’s accomplishments were much broader than that and included substantial involvement with political campaigns including running the re-election campaign of Gerald Ford and others.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Michael Kimmage, professor and department chair at the Department of History at Catholic University in Washington D.C., discusses his book, The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy. Kimmage asserts that the idea of the “West” — a set of shared values that he argues revolve around liberty and self-determination — can be traced both to Wilsonian idealism, as well as to profound developments at the end of World War II. He traces the influence that this concept that there is a group of like-minded transatlantic nations had on Cold War foreign policy. Kimmage’s discussion is wide ranging, encompassing issues as diverse as the influence of race and questions about “America first.”   Kimmage was introduced in this episode by Jeremi Suri of the LBJ School and professor at the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Clint Work of the Stimson Center hosts a discussion between Gen. Vincent Brooks, senior fellow at the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and Sheena Greitens, professor at the University of Texas at Austin, about the Korean Peninsula. This group of experts assesses the security situation on the peninsula and how it affects U.S. security.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, we listen to a talk by David French, author of Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How we Restore our Nation. French details the way in which the United States has become increasingly polarized politically, geographically, and culturally, and examines what he considers to be the threat of secession. French makes the case that in order to unite the country, Americans need to find causes and ways of interacting that focus on bringing people together and finding common ground. This discussion was part of the University of Texas’ celebration of Free Speech Week.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Dr. Michele Malvesti, professor at the LBJ School and the Strauss Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and Dr. Julie Schafer, chief technology officer for Flu Lab, discuss how the response to the COVID-19 pandemic is coming along. They talk about issues related to the development of vaccines and to what extent the response to the pandemic has conformed with planning assumptions. The episode explores what we can learn to help our response to future pandemics and other biological threats.

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 Jim Golby, senior fellow at the Clements Center, to discuss the similarities and differences in foreign policy between a second Trump administration or a Biden administration. Their conversation covers a variety of foreign policy topics as well as discovering differences in process, personality, and procedure between the two potential administrations.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Jim Golby, a senior fellow at the Clements Center at the University of Texas of Austin, sits down with Brandon Archuleta to talk about his new book, Twenty Years of Service: The Politics of Military Pension Policy and the Long Road to Reform. Archuleta’s book unpacks the forces that are behind the long persistence of a retirement system that was, as he puts it, “cliff vested,” where soldiers who remained for less than 20 years would receive nothing and those who remained for over 20 years would receive a generous pension. He also looks at the forces that enabled reform in the pension system in 2018.   Archuleta is an active duty Army officer and the views and opinions he expresses are his own and not those of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, or any other aspect of the military.

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 Evelyn Farkas, president of Farkas Global Strategies and former deputy assistant secretary of defense, to discuss global politics in the era of Trump.   Dr. Farkas provides a survey of global politics and the retrenchment of freedom since 2005. She then places this in the context of the Trump administration, concerns among some U.S. allies and partners overseas about Washington’s commitment to democracy around the world, and whether we are seeing a reduction of democratic principles within America that mirrors some of the developments we have seen in other countries.

In this episode of Horns of a Dilemma, Aaron O’Connell, associate professor of history at the Clements Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and Michel Paradis, a law professor at Columbia Law School and Georgetown Law School, discuss Paradis’ book, Last Mission to Tokyo, examine the aftermath of the Doolittle Raid. In April 1942, Col. Jimmy Doolittle lead a group of Army aviators launching B-25 bombers from Navy aircraft carriers to bomb Tokyo on a one-way mission. All but eight of the raiders escaped captivity. However, those eight were tried for war crimes by the Japanese and sentenced to death. Three were executed and five had their sentences commuted. Pardis’ book takes a look at the trial of the Japanese lawyers after the war who arranged the military commission and trial of the Doolittle Raiders.