Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar Joshua Busby, Intelligence Studies Project Senior Fellow Stephen Slick, and Intelligence Studies Project Program Manager Kim Nyugen recently published their poll findings in Lawfare on public attitudes towards the U.S. Intelligence Community. Polling was sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin and was conducted between 2023 and 2024. Key takeaways from the polling illustrate that a majority of Americans believe that the intelligence community is necessary and vital to the protection of citizens, with relatively few respondents believing that intelligence agencies are no longer necessary. However, partisan differences are an emerging trend in attitudes towards the intelligence community. Attitudes towards intelligence agencies’ effectiveness, respect for privacy rights, and institutional oversight were notably impacted by partisan affiliation. Busby, Slick, and Nyugen highlight that polling conducted in Summer 2025 will be key to understanding how partisan divides are continuing to change attitudes towards the intelligence community with the second Trump administration.
ISP’s Tearline student research team recently published an open-source report analyzing the impact of the May 2025 drone attack by the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces on infrastructure in the vicinity of Russia’s planned naval base in Sudan. The team assessed that Russia is unlikely to realize their plans for a naval base near Port Sudan in the next 6 to 12 months due to the...
The Clements Center for National Security and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at The University of Texas at Austin are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Alexandra Sukalo to lead the University’s Intelligence Studies Project (ISP). ISP was established in 2013 as a joint venture of the Clements and Strauss Centers out of a conviction that...
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs published the results of two annual national surveys of public attitudes sponsored by UT-Austin’s Strauss-Clements Intelligence Studies Project (ISP). The surveys conducted in 2023 and 2024 confirm that most Americans believe the US intelligence agencies are vital to protecting the nation and effective in carrying out their specialized tasks. These final polls of the...