William Inboden is the professor and director of the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. He previously served as the William Powers, Jr. Chair and executive director of the Clements Center for National Security, associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and distinguished scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, all at the University of Texas-Austin. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the Texas National Security Review. Dr. Inboden’s other current roles include associate with the National Intelligence Council, member of the CIA Historical Advisory Panel, and member of the State Department’s Historical Advisory Council.
Previously, he served as the senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council at the White House, where he worked on a range of foreign policy issues including the National Security Strategy, strategic forecasting, democracy and governance, contingency planning, counter-radicalization, and multilateral institutions and initiatives. Inboden’s government service also includes work at the Department of State as a member of the policy planning staff, as a special advisor in the Office of International Religious Freedom, and as a staff member in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. He also served as head of the London-based Legatum Institute, and as a Civitas Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Inboden’s newest book, The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, The Cold War, and the World on the Brink, is a synthetic overview of the Reagan Administration’s Cold War strategy and foreign and defense policies. He is also the author of Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945-1960: The Soul of Containment, co-editor of The Last Card: Inside George W. Bush’s Decision to Surge in Iraq, Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy That George W. Bush Bequeathed to Barack Obama (Brookings Institution Press), and has published numerous articles and book chapters on American foreign policy, the presidency, and American history.
Inboden is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His commentary has appeared in numerous outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Foreign Policy, Politico, National Review, The Hill, World, Weekly Standard, NPR, CNN, and BBC. He has lectured widely in academic and policy settings, testified before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and the US Congress Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and received numerous research and professional development fellowships.
Inboden has received multiple teaching awards including recognition as a “Texas 10” by the Texas Exes Alumni Association and selection as “Lecturer of the Year” at the LBJ School. His classes Presidential Decision-Making in National Security and Ethics and International Affairs were voted as “Best Class in the LBJ School” and “Class Most Likely to Challenge Your Assumptions.” Inboden received his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in history from Yale University, and his A.B. in history with honors from Stanford University. He lives in Gainesville, Florida, with his wife and two sons.
Inboden served on the Trinity Forum Board of Advisors for several years, in addition to presenting as a speaker and panelist at a Trinity Forum Academy Conference on faith and foreign policy.
Speaker’s Bureau
September 27, 2016 | “Just War in the Age of Terror” an Evening Conversation in Nashville, TN with Will Inboden
Related Trinity Forum Readings
“The Origins of Totalitarianism” by Hannah Arendt, featuring an original introduction by Will Inboden