UT Establishes Clements Center on History, Strategy, and Statecraft

By Jordan Schraeder in 40 Acres, Special on January 9, 2013 at 12:01 pm | No Comments

H.W. Brands, Jeremi Suri, Francis Gavin—some of UT’s powerhouse historians will soon have a new home on the Forty Acres.

UT has announced the creation of the William P. Clements Jr. Center on History, Strategy, and Statecraft, a first-of-its-kind academic center dedicated to research and scholarship in national security policy and diplomatic, military, and international history. It honors former Texas Gov. Bill Clements, one of the state’s leading oil entrepreneurs and former deputy of defense under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Established in conjunction with the Clements family, the center will offer coursework and study abroad opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing national security careers, as well as grants and fellowships for researchers and faculty members. Its goal: to strengthen the teaching of history and translate it into contemporary national security policy.

“Before coming to UT, I spent a decade in Washington,” says William Inboden, an LBJ School professor who will serve as the center’s executive director. “Often when policymakers are wrestling with a particular issue, they ask, ‘What can we learn from history?’ History can have a lot of insights for current security problems.”

The Clements Center will work hand-in-hand with UT’s Strauss Center for International Security and Law, the Department of History, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Superstar faculty members from multiple disciplines across campus will take part in the new program.

“The Clements Center reinforces UT’s efforts to support the diplomatic, military, and international history,” President Bill Powers said in a statement. “These fields, valuable in their own right, are also essential for training the next generation of leaders in national security and statecraft.”

Inboden says, as far as he knows, this is the first center of its kind on a college campus—a fact that he hopes UT students, faculty, and staff take pride in.

“Nothing is more important than national security,” he says. “I hope that the Longhorn Nation is excited to see the University excelling in this area.”

The Clements Center on History, Strategy, and Statecraft will be located in the Flawn Academic Center. Inboden hopes it will be up and running this spring.

Photo by DaveWilsonPhotography via Flickr Creative Commons.

Tags: and Statecraft, Bill Clements, president bill powers, strategy, Strauss Center for International Security and Law, William Inboden, William P. Clements Jr. Center on History