Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The United States has waged wars, large and small, almost continually across two and a half centuries. No figure looms as large in that history as the American president, the embodiment of national will, the nation’s preeminent diplomat, and the commander in chief of its armed forces. How have presidents made decisions about war and peace? How have they balanced American ideals with defense of the nation’s interests? Why have they succeeded in achieving their goals in some cases but not in others?
This six-part virtual series explores these and other questions through lively conversations with eminent historians of American politics, diplomacy, and military affairs. Each session will begin with a moderated discussion led by LBJ Library Director Mark Lawrence but will allow ample time for questions from the audience. Over six weeks leading up to Presidents’ Day, we will sweep across American history from the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House to the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. We will examine presidents from Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, delving into their choices about war and peace as well as the implications of those decisions for the nation’s present and future.
About the speaker:
On February 2, 2023, Will Inboden will join us to talk about Ronald Reagan and the end of the Cold War.
William Inboden is Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas-Austin. He also serves as Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Distinguished Scholar at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Editor-in-Chief of the Texas National Security Review. Previously he served as Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the NSC at the White House. Inboden also worked at the Department of State as a Member of the Policy Planning Staff and a Special Advisor in the Office of International Religious Freedom, and as a Congressional staff member in both the US House and Senate. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and member of the CIA Historical Advisory Panel and State Department Historical Advisory Council. Inboden's recent book, The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan in the White House and the World, published November 2022, is an in-depth account of how Reagan's foreign policy won the Cold War and laid the foundations for the 21st century.
The United States has waged wars, large and small, almost continually across two and a half centuries. No figure looms as large in that history as the American president, the embodiment of national will, the nation’s preeminent diplomat, and the commander in chief of its armed forces. How have presidents made decisions about war and peace? How have they balanced American ideals with defense of the nation’s interests? Why have they succeeded in achieving their goals in some cases but not in others?
This six-part virtual series explores these and other questions through lively conversations with eminent historians of American politics, diplomacy, and military affairs. Each session will begin with a moderated discussion led by LBJ Library Director Mark Lawrence but will allow ample time for questions from the audience. Over six weeks leading up to Presidents’ Day, we will sweep across American history from the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House to the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. We will examine presidents from Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, delving into their choices about war and peace as well as the implications of those decisions for the nation’s present and future.
About the speaker:
On February 2, 2023, Will Inboden will join us to talk about Ronald Reagan and the end of the Cold War.
William Inboden is Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas-Austin. He also serves as Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Distinguished Scholar at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Editor-in-Chief of the Texas National Security Review. Previously he served as Senior Director for Strategic Planning on the NSC at the White House. Inboden also worked at the Department of State as a Member of the Policy Planning Staff and a Special Advisor in the Office of International Religious Freedom, and as a Congressional staff member in both the US House and Senate. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and member of the CIA Historical Advisory Panel and State Department Historical Advisory Council. Inboden's recent book, The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan in the White House and the World, published November 2022, is an in-depth account of how Reagan's foreign policy won the Cold War and laid the foundations for the 21st century.
![[Podcast] With the Bark Off: A Conversation with Peter Baker & Susan Glasser About Donald Trump](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wigiZCxeAjU/mqdefault.jpg "[Podcast] With the Bark Off: A Conversation with Peter Baker & Susan Glasser About Donald Trump
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Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, a political analyst for MSNBC, and the author of several books on the presidency, including Days of Fire and The Breach. Susan Glasser is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a CNN global affairs analyst. Their first assignment as a married couple was as Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post, after which they wrote Kremlin Rising. They also co-authored The Man Who Ran Washington, a New York Times bestseller.
The Divider is, at least for the moment, the definitive account of the Trump presidency. Sweeping across four years of nearly constant crisis and controversy, the book examines one of Americas most enigmatic presidencies, which included two impeachments, dramatic international events, a constantly shifting array of advisers, and the insurrection of January 6, 2021.
This conversation took place on December 13, 2022, at the LBJ Presidential Library.
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/12851597?utm_source=youtube")
