Past Events

The LBJ Washington Center and the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs invite you to Beyond Immigration Politics: Preparing for the Aging of a Majority-Minority Nation, a lunchtime discussion with Fernando Torres-Gil and Jacqueline L. Angel.

Suzanne Spaulding, senior adviser for Homeland Security Program and International Security Program, and former Undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security, will give a talk on "Countering Adversary Attacks on Democracy and the Rule of Law" at the LBJ School on Thursday, April 25. She will speak about ongoing foreign influence operations that go beyond elections to undermine other democratic institutions, such as our justice system, and democracy itself. This talk is part of the Strauss Center's Brumley Speaker Series.

On Tuesday, April 23, 2019, the Intelligence Studies Project welcomes Seth G. Jones, director of the Transnational Threats Project and a senior adviser to the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who will speak about his most recent book, A Covert Action: Reagan, the CIA, and the Cold War Struggle in Poland, which examines the little-known story of the CIA’s operations in Poland, which produced a landmark victory for democracy during the Cold War.

Throughout each year, both students and faculty at the LBJ School undertake timely policy research to stretch intellectual boundaries and tackle the most complex problems of our day. Innovation Bound celebrates the impact, quality and range of the published works of our distinguished faculty and students.

Mickey Edwards served Oklahoma's 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993. After Congress he taught at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and now serves as a vice president of the Aspen Institute. A founding trustee of the Heritage Foundation and national chairman of the American Conservative Union, Edwards has been a political columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, and was a weekly commentator on NPR's "All Things Considered."

Join the Strauss Center for a lunchtime panel where space lawyers with commercial, government and international experience will provide insights, career advice and answer questions. If you’re interested in international, corporate, intellectual property, administrative, arms control, insurance or any other kind of law with space applications, please come and enjoy some free food! This panel is co-sponsored by the Texas International Law Journal, and the Journal of Law & Technology at Texas.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2019, the Strauss Center and Clements Center will welcome Col. Liam Collins, director of the Modern War Institute at West Point, to discuss the U.S.-Russian hybrid war in Ukraine, U.S. policy and ways to counter Russian aggression.  Col. Collins has conducted multiple visits to Ukraine as the executive officer for Gen. (ret.) John Abizaid in his role as the senior defense adviser to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, April 10, 2019, the Strauss Center presents Ben Rohrbaugh, a partner at consulting firm BorderWorks. Rohrbaugh was the Border Security Director in the White House National Security Council in 2014 when flows of unaccompanied Central American minors first began to overwhelm processing facilities on the southwest border.

This special Admitted Students Weekend session of the Dean's Distinguished Leaders Series features Austin Smythe (MPAff ‘80), who served as policy director to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) from 2015 to 2019, and before that worked for Ryan over 11 years in a variety of capacities, including as policy director for the House Ways and Means Committee and as staff director for the House Budget Committee (2007–15).

Aldo Flores-Quiroga is former deputy secretary of energy for hydrocarbons at Mexico’s Ministry of Energy (2016–18), where he led a team of more than 180 government officials to implement the historic opening of Mexico's hydrocarbons sector. He launched an oil exploration strategy and production auctions, helped liberalize Mexico’s markets for refined products and natural gas, helped create strategic inventories for gasoline, diesel and natural gas, and negotiated Mexico's role in the unprecedented OPEC-Non OPEC pact to stabilize oil markets.