Thinking Historically: A Conversation with Dr. Frank Gavin

Welcome to “The Past, The Promise, the Presidency,” a podcast about the role of the presidency in American life. This week’s episode features Dr. Frank Gavin, Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and the inaugural Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. Dr. Gavin visited Dallas in early April to speak to CPH's Article II Society members about his most recent book, Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy.  

Center for Presidential History Research Assistant Kennedy Moore was joined by Assistant Director Susie Penman for a conversation with Dr. Gavin.

Frank Gavin is the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and the inaugural Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is also the chairman of the Board of Editors for the Texas National Security Review. He is a Senior Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas, a Distinguished Scholar at the University of Texas Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and an affiliate of the Security Studies Program at MIT. He is the Co-Founder, Co-Director, and Principal Investigator, with James Steinberg, of the Carnegie International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network (IPSCON), and Founder and Director of the Nuclear Studies Research Initiative (NSRI). Gavin currently serves on the CIA Historical Panel and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kennedy Moore is a junior at SMU, double majoring in public policy and music with a minor in public policy and international affairs. Kennedy is a President's Scholar, Pre-law Scholar, and Meadows Scholar. At SMU, Kennedy is involved in Hegi Board Fellows, Meadows Chorale, the Tower Center's premier undergraduate research journal The Dialogue, and works at SMU's Center for Presidential History. Kennedy is interested in educational equity and national defense. She aspires to work for a federal agency to research and create policies to protect our education system and recenter citizens' voices in policy. 

Susie Penman is Assistant Director of the SMU Center for Presidential History. Her area of research is southern studies, with her doctoral work specifically focused on law and politics in New Orleans in the late 20th century. Her current manuscript project studies the office of Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr., exploring how local ideas about crime and punishment shifted during the three decades that he served as DA. At the Center for Presidential History, she oversees all of CPH’s oral history projects.