National Security

Alan Thomas (MPAff '94) specialized in national security at the LBJ School before he became a federal political appointee. Thomas ultimately became an operating executive with more than 25 years of delivering mission-critical programs, championing large-scale digital transformation initiatives, and building deep functional expertise in acquisition and procurement. Thomas is currently the chief solutions officer at Leadership Connect, a vital service in relationship-building for policymakers and public sector professionals nationwide.

A PRP this fall by LBJ Professor Stephen B. Slick is taking a fresh look at one of the most significant dangers to American democracy in recent history: efforts by foreign states to influence and damage the integrity of U.S. elections. Slick and his students are assessing efforts by Russia and other states in 2016 and examining how the federal government responded to counteract similar attempts in 2018 and 2020.

An ongoing Policy Research Project (PRP) led by LBJ Professor Stephen B. Slick is examining foreign threats to U.S.

"We rarely understand a moment until it has passed," writes LBJ Professor Jeremi Suri in a historical perspective on Sept. 11, 2001 in The Hill . "That is especially true in times of collective...

Josh Busby, an associate professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs, has joined the Biden administration as a senior advisor for climate in the U.S. Department of Defense. He will spend a year working on climate change and national security at the Pentagon, where he will be involved in the Biden administration's prioritization of climate change including the National Defense Strategy.

A new policy paper by the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin maps current and prospective hot spots of climate-related security concerns around the world. Prepared for the Social Science Research Council as part of a wider report for the United Nations Environment Programme, the paper attempts to help security and humanitarian organizations concentrate resources and attention.

Retired Navy admiral and LBJ School professor of national security William McRaven gives tribute to the real, everyday heroes he's met over the years, from battlefields to hospitals to college campuses, who are doing their part to save the world in his newly released book, "The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived."

Retired Navy admiral and LBJ School professor of national security William McRaven gives tribute to the real, everyday heroes he's met over the years, from battlefields to hospitals to college camp

"Rising tensions between the United States and China brought fresh mudslinging Wednesday as a sharp dispute over responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic spills into new forums such as Taiwan." LBJ's Sheena Greitens said the friction is a "perfect storm" of several factors, and reasoned that "American strategy and national seurity shouldn't depend on or assume transparency from China."

From its role as a punching bag in the presidential race to it being the target of executive, legislative, and judicial actions, China looms large in American politics. In 2020, that presence is overwhelmingly a negative one. But China hasn't always been such a lightning rod in U.S. politics. LBJ's Sheena Chestnut Greitens talks with Ian Hutchinson of the U.S.-China Business Council about how we got to this point and what the future might hold.