Kyle Balzer awarded prestigious fellowship at Clements Center for National Security

One of the nation’s top national security research institutes awarded a prestigious post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin to Ohio University doctoral student Kyle Balzer.

A sixth-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in History and a Certificate in Contemporary History, Balzer will spend the 2022-23 academic year at the Clements Center for National Security through the America in the World Consortium Post-Doctoral Fellowship. The Clements Center seeks to train the next generation of national security leaders through education, research and public debate.

"The Clements Center for National Security is one of the nation’s premier national security research institutes, and this is a very prestigious fellowship," said Ingo Trauschweizer, professor of history and director of the Contemporary History Institute.

During the course of his fellowship, Balzer will take part in Clements Center programming and further his own research. He intends to publish articles, while also gain first-hand experience and knowledge from senior scholars at the institution.

As an OHIO student, Balzer is in the final stages of completing his dissertation on “The Revivalists: James R. Schlesinger, the Nuclear Warfighting Strategists, and Competitive Strategies for Great Power Competition.” His dissertation examines the national defense strategies deployed by Schlesinger, a former Secretary of Defense and CIA director, in the 1970s; as well as American defense policy during the latter half of the Cold War. He plans to defend his dissertation in April.

Balzer credits OHIO and the Contemporary History Institute for his success as a post-doctorate student.

“For a historian-in-training struggling to navigate a Ph.D. program the Contemporary History Institute provided a conducive and supportive environment for research and writing,” Balzer said. “My first seminar at the center was vital for my dissertation. It helped me develop a methodological approach to the study of the past.”

The professors and fellow students at the Contemporary History Institute were not only tremendously helpful, but they led by example, according to Balzer. The institute also consistently brought in some of the top academics in the country as guest speakers.

“Contemporary History Institute students are able to meet and talk with interesting academics and policy practitioners who visit as guest lectures,” he said.