Past Events

On Thursday, October 6, the Strauss Center welcomes Dr. Tony Payan, the Françoise and Edward Djerejian Fellow for Mexico Studies and Director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, for a talk on “The Evolving Nature of Organized Crime in Mexico and Why We Should Care.” This talk is part of our Brumley Speaker Series.

In this conversation, Dr. Payan will discuss how Mexico’s struggle with elevated levels of violence and crime has diverted attention from understanding the drastic changes in the nature and character of Mexico’s criminal organizations, with detrimental consequences for not only Mexico, but the United States as well. Payan will argue that, although it is important to examine crime and violence in Mexico today from a quantitative standpoint, it is essential to also analyze how and why criminal organizations have changed in recent years from large, hierarchical organizations primarily dedicated to drug trafficking to networks of sophisticated, vicious groups creating chaos in Mexico’s society and endangering its institutions. According to Payan, the role that these organizations play within the United States in the fentanyl crisis, as well as immigration and human trafficking, shows that Washington, D.C. can not hesitate to address what is happening on the ground south of the border.

Join the esteemed LBJ School Faculty for a set of virtual webinars showcasing research, opportunities and hot topics by policy area.  Admissions staff will also be on-hand to answer application questions. 

On Wednesday, October 5, the Clements Center for National Security, the Clements-Strauss Asia Policy Program, the America in the World Consortium and the Center for East Asian Studies will host Hal Brands, Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), for a book talk on his upcoming release with Michael Beckley Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China. Join us at 12:15 pm in RLP 1.302B, Patton Hall.

Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). He is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He is the author or editor of several books, including American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump (2018), Making the Unipolar Moment: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Post-Cold War Order (2016), What Good is Grand Strategy? Power and Purpose in American Statecraft from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush (2014), Latin America’s Cold War (2010), From Berlin to Baghdad: America’s Search for Purpose in the Post-Cold War World (2008), and The Power of the Past: History and Statecraft (co-edited with Jeremi Suri, 2015). His newest book is The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order, co-authored with Charles Edel.

Hal served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Strategic Planning from 2015 to 2016, and has been a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He has also consulted with a range of government offices and agencies in the intelligence and national security communities and served as lead writer for the Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States.

Hal received his BA from Stanford University (2005) and his PhD from Yale University (2009). He previously worked at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and the Institute for Defense Analyses. He lives in Maryland with his wife and two children.

For more information about this event, contact Elizabeth Doughtie at elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.

On Thursday, September 29, the Clements Center for National Security, the Asia Policy Program, the Alexander Hamilton Society at UT Austin and the Center for East Asian Studies will host Aaron Friedberg, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, for a book talk on his recent release Getting China Wrong. Join us at 12:15 pm in SRH 3.122, The LBJ School of Public Affairs. 

Aaron L. Friedberg is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1987, and co-director of Princeton’s Center for International Security Studies.  In January 2022 he was appointed to a two-year term on the Congressional US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.  From 2003 to 2005 he served as a Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs in the office of the Vice President and he was subsequently appointed to the Defense Policy Board.  In 2000-2001 he was a member of a panel tasked by Congress with reviewing the CIA’s analysis of China.  He has conducted studies for a number of government agencies, including the Office of Net Assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council.

In 2001-2002 Friedberg was selected as the first occupant of the Henry A. Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress. He has been a research fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and Harvard University's Center for International Affairs.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and serves as a counselor to the National Bureau of Asian Research. 

Friedberg is the author of several books and monographs, including The Weary Titan: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895-1905 (1988), In the Shadow of the Garrison State: America’s Anti-Statism and Its Cold War Grand Strategy (2000), A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia (2011), Beyond Air-Sea Battle: The Debate Over U.S. Military Strategy in Asia (2014), The Authoritarian Challenge: China, Russia and the Threat to the International Order (2017).  He is the author (with Charles Bustany) of Partial Disengagement: A New U.S. Strategy for Economic Competition With China (2019).  His most recent book is Getting China Wrong (2022).

Dr. Friedberg received his A.B., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University.

For more information on this event, contact Elizabeth Doughtie at elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.

Join the esteemed LBJ School Faculty for a set of virtual webinars showcasing research, opportunities and hot topics by policy area.  Admissions staff will also be on-hand to answer application questions. 

Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Henry Cisneros has his finger on the pulse of the housing issue that has become so pressing in central Texas. As the former mayor of San Antonio, he also deeply believes that infrastructure spending should be coordinated with cities and other local governments from the ground up, not just dictated by Washington from the top down. He will discuss this and more with Bill Fulton, one of the nation’s leading thinkers on urban planning and land use. 

About Henry Cisneros

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Cisneros was elected mayor of San Antonio, Texas in 1981, becoming the first Hispanic-American mayor of a major U.S. city. During his four terms as mayor, he helped rebuild the city’s economic base and spurred the creation of jobs through massive infrastructure and downtown improvements. He was selected as the “Outstanding Mayor” in the nation by City and State Magazine in 1986.

After leaving HUD in 1997, Cisneros was president and chief operating officer of Univision Communications, the Spanish-language broadcasting company, and currently serves on its board of directors.

Cisneros holds degrees from Texas A&M University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The George Washington University. He also has been awarded more than 20 honorary doctorates from leading universities. He has authored and edited several books, and was presented the Common Purpose Award with former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp for demonstrating the potential of bipartisan cooperation.

On Tuesday, September 27, the Strauss Center will host professional hacker Tinker, Red Team program architect and an expert in information security, as part of our Tales from the Cybersecurity Front speaker series, to tackle concepts of security, exploitation, and vulnerabilities. Tinker argues that while the concept of exploitation vs. vulnerability encourages us to think in terms of lost money, the realities of information security are much more personal. Join us as we discuss the personal impact of information security from the perspective of a hacker and learn about how hackers exploit vulnerabilities in ways that hit close to home. Wendy Nather, Senior Cybersecurity Fellow with the Strauss Center, will moderate.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In a special series titled “Policy Lessons from the Past," four Texas-based policy experts will discuss how our shared history impacts today's political environment, spanning topics like racial justice, immigration, global confrontations and the very nature of democracy.

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The LBJ Washington Center presents Dr. Peniel Joseph, a historian and scholar of race and democracy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. In an event moderated by Bill Shute, Executive Director of the LBJ Washington Center, Dr. Joseph will offer a powerful interpretation of the events of summer 2020 and the fight for Black dignity, calling this period as transformative as the movements post Civil War and during the civil rights era. This is the subject of his new book The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century. 

Can't make the event? Subscribe to LBJ's podcast to listen on demand in September.

On Thursday, September 22, the Strauss Center and Intelligence Studies Project are excited to welcome Kristi Scott, the Chief Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Jackie Acker, CIA’s Deputy Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer for a public talk on “The CIA and Your Rights.” They will discuss how the CIA protects the rights and privacy of Americans as it recruits spies, collects intelligence, conducts covert action, and analyzes information to inform policymakers.  The event will also cover how the CIA and other intelligence agencies account for civil liberties when they deploy emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Adam Klein, Director of the Strauss Center, will moderate this discussion.

Lunch will be served. For more information, contact Ali Prince at ali.prince@austin.utexas.edu.

Biographies

Jacqueline “Jackie” Acker serves in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties as the Deputy Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer.  She advises clients across CIA on a variety of privacy and civil liberties issues as well as ethical artificial intelligence development. Ms. Acker is a Certified Information Privacy Professional through the International Association of Privacy Professionals and an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law.

Ms. Acker graduated from the University of Tulsa in with a Juris Doctorate with a Health Law Certificate after receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in Theater with a focus in scenic design.

Kristi Scott is the Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency. In this role, Ms. Scott serves as an independent, primary advisor to the CIA Director and other senior Agency officials to ensure that privacy and civil liberties are integrated into the day-to-day conduct of the Agency’s mission and prepares reports for oversight and the American public. Ms. Scott also served as the Acting Director and Deputy Director at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties. During her long service at DOJ, Ms. Scott also was an Assistant United States Attorney and a Special Assistant United States Attorney prosecuting federal crimes in the District of Arizona and the Eastern District of Virginia.

Ms. Scott graduated from Penn State University Dickenson School of Law and received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Rhetorical Studies from the University of Pittsburgh and has multiple certifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

On Thursday, September 22, the Clements Center for National Security, the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Center for European Studies and the Alexander Hamilton Society at UT Austin, will host Dan Fata, President of Fata Advisory, LLC and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy, for a talk on "An Update on the Russia-Ukraine War and What it's Done - and Means for International Security." Join us in RLP 1.302B, Patton Hall. 

Daniel Fata is President, Fata Advisory, LLC. He is a public policy expert, national security consultant, and strategic advisor focused on helping companies and organizations enhance their product and program offerings through the development of comprehensive government affairs strategies, risk assessments, strategic planning, and advocacy initiatives. He has more than 25+ years of experience working in Congress, the Department of Defense, the aerospace and defense industry, the consulting arena, and as part of America's leading think tanks. He has a proven record of success working with C-Suite executives, Cabinet officers, senior military and foreign government officials, and public policy sector leaders. He is an expert on issues regarding U.S. national security, government relations, strategic risk, European foreign policy, global aerospace and defense industry, industrial base supply chain, technology, and third party advocacy campaigns amongst other issues. He is active in numerous think tanks and technology start up efforts.

In February 2022, Dan was appointed by the U.S. Senate leadership to serve as one of sixteen Commissioners on the congressionally-mandated Afghanistan War Commission. The Commission was established in the FY22 National Defense Authorization Act to study America’s 20-year involvement in the war in Afghanistan and to assess lessons learned for future conflicts. The Commission has a three-year mandate.

For seven years, Dan served in various capacities as Vice President for Government Affairs at Lockheed Martin (LM). From 2017-2021, he was Vice President for Policy and Strategy Engagement responsible for managing high profile cross-functional, cross-collaborative projects to proactively shape policy outcomes and to develop strategic initiatives and campaigns across a variety of issues including innovation, defense industrial base, acquisition policy, DoD budget, and workforce. He served as the Corporate lead for overall Executive Branch engagement with the White House and key DoD offices/agencies. He also managed the Corporation’s strategic relationships with major industry associations, domestic think tanks, and influencers. From 2015-2017, Dan served as Vice President for International Program Support, where he was responsible for developing and executing U.S. government engagement strategies that supported LM's business priorities around the globe.

Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Dan spent six years as the Vice President for The Cohen Group (TCG), a global strategic advisory firm. He was responsible for leading client engagements with Fortune 500 companies on issues related to Europe, Eurasia, Afghanistan, and Canada as well as on defense, aerospace, intelligence, technology, logistics, nuclear power, and development. He managed nearly a dozen client teams and created/led numerous initiatives assisting clients with business development, profile raising in key markets, market access, risk development, and domestic and international government affairs strategies.

From 2005-2008, he served as the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy (DASD NATO Policy). In that role, he was a key advisor to two Secretaries of Defense and was responsible for developing and executing American defense policy among the nations of Canada, Europe, Russia, and Eurasia, as well as with international organizations including NATO, the European Union, and the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe. Prior to his DoD assignment, Dan worked in Congress as Policy Director for National Security and Trade for Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) in their capacities as Chairmen of the Republican Policy Committees in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Dan has been affiliated with some of America’s leading think tanks and NGOs including the Alexander Hamilton Society, the American Enterprise Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. He is a regular guest lecturer at leading U.S. colleges and universities. He continues to publish numerous opeds and analytical pieces on national security issues. He graduated with Honors from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He earned his Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Boston University.

For more information on this event, contact Elizabeth Doughtie at elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.