Clements Center for National Security

Clements Center for National Security Training the next generation of national security leaders at UT-Austin
clementscenter.org Training the next generation of national security leaders at UT-Austin

Recent stops on the Clements Center's Korea May Term: the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters in Tomigusuku, w...
05/27/2026

Recent stops on the Clements Center's Korea May Term: the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters in Tomigusuku, where Rear Adm. Minoru Ota’s Japanese Navy forces held out in a tunnel complex during the Battle of Okinawa; Miyajima (Itsukushima) Island and Itsukushima Shrine off the coast of Hiroshima; Seodaemun Prison History Hall in Seoul, which preserves the colonial-era prison used by Japanese authorities to detain Korean independence activists; Camp Casey, the U.S. Army installation near the DMZ that has anchored the American forward presence in Korea since 1952; and the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom, where United Nations Command and Republic of Korea forces stand face-to-face with North Korean forces across the armistice line.

This Memorial Day, we honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to our nation.
05/25/2026

This Memorial Day, we honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to our nation.

Korea May Term students visited the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum and the Himeyuri Peace Museum during the p...
05/21/2026

Korea May Term students visited the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum and the Himeyuri Peace Museum during the program's Japan leg, studying the Battle of Okinawa where it happened.

The two museums offer different scales of the same history. The Peace Memorial Museum, in Itoman, traces Okinawa's path through the war, the postwar U.S. administration, and the 1972 reversion to Japan. The Himeyuri Peace Museum, built by survivors in 1989, focuses on the students and teachers from two Naha girls' schools who served as wartime nurses.

Several days in Hiroshima, midway through the Clements Center's Korea May Term.Students walked the grounds of the Hirosh...
05/20/2026

Several days in Hiroshima, midway through the Clements Center's Korea May Term.

Students walked the grounds of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and spent time in the Peace Memorial Museum. They held presentations at sites across the Peace Memorial Park, among them the Memorial Tower to the Mobilized Students, a monument to the schoolchildren sent to wartime labor who did not return, and the Cenotaph for the Korean Victims, which marks the tens of thousands of Koreans who were in the city on August 6, 1945.

The program continues this week in Okinawa before returning to Seoul.

Congratulations to James "Paul" Pope, Senior Fellow with the Clements-Strauss Intelligence Studies Project, on his appoi...
05/18/2026

Congratulations to James "Paul" Pope, Senior Fellow with the Clements-Strauss Intelligence Studies Project, on his appointment as interim dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, effective August 1.

Pope is a Professor of Practice and the Loyd Hackler Chair for Ethical Leadership at the LBJ School, where he chaired the committee that developed the school's new Master of National Security degree.

Before academia, he held senior roles across the U.S. intelligence community, including chief of station, chief of operations, and chief of the CIA's Tradecraft and Training Division. He also served as acting assistant director of National Intelligence for Partner Engagement, head of delegation to NATO's Civilian Intelligence Committee, and earlier as a U.S. Army officer.

We are fortunate to count him among our community of scholars and practitioners and look forward to his new leadership role at the LBJ School.

9,389 American graves at Colleville-sur-Mer. An artificial harbor towed across the Channel and assembled off Arromanches...
05/18/2026

9,389 American graves at Colleville-sur-Mer. An artificial harbor towed across the Channel and assembled off Arromanches. Four German naval guns still pointed at the sea from their casemates at Longues.

Our London May Term students crossed the Channel to spend the weekend in Normandy, where the largest amphibious operation in history began on June 6, 1944. At each stop, students delivered site presentations on the strategy, logistics, and human cost of Operation Overlord.

Swipe through to learn more.

On May 11, Clements Center Undergraduate Fellow Henderson Chandler took the Oath of Office and was commissioned as a Sec...
05/12/2026

On May 11, Clements Center Undergraduate Fellow Henderson Chandler took the Oath of Office and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in the United States Army.

Commissioning is the culmination of years of training through the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. It is the moment a cadet becomes an officer, sworn in to lead soldiers in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Henderson graduated this spring from the Canfield Business Honors Program with a degree in International Relations and Chinese. As a four-year Clements Fellow, he studied in our London May Term and Summer Beyond Borders: Korea programs, and his academic interests ranged from Arctic security to irregular warfare to the Korean Peninsula. He was also a Brumley NextGen Undergraduate Scholar and a junior editor for the Irregular Warfare Initiative.

Congratulations, Lieutenant Chandler. We are proud of all you accomplished at UT Austin, and we look forward to following your career.

Congratulations to Jack Maddox, one of Texas Athletics' biggest fans (aka Bevo Hat Guy), who graduated this past weekend...
05/11/2026

Congratulations to Jack Maddox, one of Texas Athletics' biggest fans (aka Bevo Hat Guy), who graduated this past weekend with a distinguished scholar designation from the College of Natural Sciences, headed toward a career in medicine.

Fun fact: During his first semester at UT, Jack took a UGS course, "History of Jerusalem," taught by Clements Center Deputy Executive Director Paul Edgar. At the Clements Center, we believe that understanding history is foundational — not just for those entering public service or policy, but for anyone who wants to make sense of the world they're living in. That's what UGS courses like History of Jerusalem are about.

Congratulations to Jack and every member of the Class of 2026. 🤘🎓

On May 9, our London May Term students went underground at Dover Castle into the chalk tunnels where Vice Admiral Bertra...
05/11/2026

On May 9, our London May Term students went underground at Dover Castle into the chalk tunnels where Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay planned Operation Dynamo in May 1940.

From these cliffs, the Royal Navy coordinated the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk in nine days. The tunnels had been dug during the Napoleonic Wars, repurposed in WWII, then expanded again as a Cold War regional command center.

One of the most consequential rooms in 20th-century military history.

Clements Center Korea May Term students visited the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul on May 7, where they hear...
05/11/2026

Clements Center Korea May Term students visited the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul on May 7, where they heard from two of the institute's leading scholars and took part in a broader Q&A with Asan fellows.

Dr. Ji-Hyang Jang lectured on "The Korea Model as a Reform Aspiration for the Middle East," and Dr. Peter K. Lee presented "Comparing U.S. Alliances in a Multipolar Indo-Pacific."

The Q&A that followed covered the ROK-U.S. alliance [the longstanding security alliance between the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the United States], developments in the Middle East, the defense and shipbuilding industries, and Indo-Pacific security cooperation. Exactly the kind of cross-regional conversation that prepares the next generation of national security leaders.

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2304 Whitis Avenue
Austin, TX
78712

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Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
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