The William P. Clements Jr. Center for National Security

The Clements Center for National Security is a nonpartisan policy and research center at the University of Texas at Austin.^[1][2] The Center is named after former Texas Governor and Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Clements.^[3]

Purpose

The Clements Center for National Security trains the next generation of national security leaders by drawing on the best insights of military and diplomatic history. The Center's core belief is that understanding history is essential for wise and effective national security strategy and statecraft. If used thoughtfully, history can provide leaders with the wisdom to determine effective policies, a deeper sense of perspective, and an appreciation for the patterns of the past.

The Center honors Bill Clements' legacy and trains young leaders by utilizing three tools: teaching, research, and convening.

Teaching

The Clements Center prepares students for careers as policymakers and scholars through a variety of educational opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.^[4]

• Clements scholars and faculty affiliates teach graduate and undergraduate courses such as Military History of the Ancient Mediterranean, Intelligence and National Security in American Society, U.S. Foreign Policy After Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. Foreign Relations.
• Graduate students from across the country are invited out to Beaver Creek, Colorado annually for the Summer Seminar in History and Statecraft to explore the connections between statecraft and history. Senior policymakers and scholars lead sessions devoted to bridging the gap between statecraft and history.
• The Undergraduate and Graduate Fellows Programs are peer networks of like-minded aspiring national security leaders at The University of Texas. Each group meets monthly for guest speaker lectures, reading groups, peer paper reviews, and career development.
• The Clements Center's Maymester in London "The U.S., U.K., and World Order" provides exemplary students the opportunity to learn firsthand about the Anglo-American tradition of history and strategic studies. The program is taught at Kings College London and includes visits to historic battlefields and other important landmarks in Anglo-American strategic history.
• Internships are a key component of education and professional development, and the Clements Center’s Student Professional Development Fund supports students who have secured unpaid internships in fields related to defense and foreign policy. This helps launch students in careers in national security.

Research

The Clements Center addresses complex issues of national security through the sponsorship of rigorous policy-relevant scholarship.^[5]

• A Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran are just a few of the many distinguished military and civilian leaders that make up the Clements Center's National Security Fellows program.
• Clements Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships are granted to current and recent graduates whose research bears directly on American foreign policy or international security. These year-long fellowships support the next generation of national security scholars.
• The Clements Center and the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law are collaborating with the U.S. Intelligence Community on the Intelligence Studies Project to bring together scholars, policymakers, and intelligence officials to explore the past, present, and future of intelligence work. This includes workshops conducted with the National Security Agency, the National Intelligence Council, and senior intelligence and counterterrorism officials. The ISP aims to develop at the University of Texas at Austin a premier center for the study of U.S. intelligence, through a variety of programs including new course offerings, research projects, periodic conferences and other public events focused on intelligence topics.
• Clements Center researchers have spent hours gathering and digitizing papers from the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush Presidential Archives, as well as the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Legislative Archives in order to create the Clements National Security Papers digital archive. The Clements Center worked with the Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin to design and implement an online resource to allow access to these valuable materials without the need to travel to multiple repositories.^[6][7]

Convening

The Clements Center hosts a multitude of events and conferences to disseminate the program's intellectual capital. Scholars and practitioners dedicated to history, strategy, and statecraft are invited to The University of Texas at Austin each semester for this purpose.^[8]

• Notable speakers have included current Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter,^[9] former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, CIA Director John Brennan,^[10] Pulitzer Prize-winning scholars, and senior intelligence officials.
• Public conferences are held each year that bring together leading figures from academia, Congress, the executive branch, and the intelligence community. Every fall, the Clements Center hosts a National Security Forum.^[11][12]
• Every semester, the Clements Center hosts thematic speaker series which bring the foremost thinkers and scholars on those topics to campus. Previous and current speaker series topics include: Women and National Security,^[13][14] Afghanistan,^[15] 'Presidential Power, Then and Now,'^[16] and Young Scholars.^[17]

Leadership

• William Inboden, Executive Director^[18]
• Paul D. Miller, Associate Director^[19]
• Steve Slick, Intelligence Studies Project Director^[20]
• Mark Lawrence, Director of Graduate Studies^[21]
• Geoff Connor, Director of Strategy^[22]

External links

• Website
• Facebook page
• Twitter page
• LinkedIn page
• YouTube page
• Flickr page
• Upcoming events
• Media requests

References