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.