Commentary Archive

“Forward March” forthcoming, The Point (2022)

“What’s America’s Story of Afghanistan?” The National Interest (March/April 2022)

“‘Major American Failure.’ A Political Scientist on Why the U.S. Lost in Afghanistan,” TIME Magazine (August 18, 2021)

“The Future of Afghanistan Hinges on American Dollars, Not Troops,” War on the Rocks (June 1, 2021)

“No Exit: The Illusion of Leaving Afghanistan,” FPRI (December 16, 2020)

“How Putin Got into America’s Mind,” The Atlantic (September 13, 2020)

“Not Even the Coronavirus Will Unite America,” The Atlantic (March 25, 2020)

“The Left Should Play the China Card,” Foreign Affairs, with Tarun Chhabra and Scott Moore, (February 13, 2020)

“Failing Upwards: How America’s Military Leaders Can Learn from Their Mistakes,” The National Interest (January/February 2019)

“A Jabberwocky Peace in Afghanistan,” The Atlantic (January 31, 2019)

“The U.S. Isn’t Really Leaving Syria and Afghanistan,” The Atlantic (January 8, 2019)

“Russia’s Strength is its Weakness,” The Atlantic (July 21, 2018)

“America Keeps Accidentally Helping Iran,” The Atlantic (May 9, 2018)

“Human Rights are Largely Irrelevant to the Emerging Trump Doctrine,” The Atlantic (November 14, 2017)

“The Risks of Foreign Policy as Political Distraction,” The Atlantic (June 15, 2017)

“What Does It Mean that Trump is ‘Leader of the Free World’?” The Atlantic (January 24, 2017)

“Does America Need an Enemy?” The National Interest (November/December 2016)

“Trump, Putin and the Art of Appeasement,” The Atlantic (December 15, 2016)

“The Twenty Years’ War,” The Atlantic (August 23, 2016)

“How Not to Plan for the ‘Day After’ in Libya,” The Atlantic (August 9, 2016)

“ISIS and the Loser Effect,” The Atlantic (April 28, 2016)

 “Who Really Lost Iraq?” The Atlantic (January 21, 2016) 

“The Hidden Danger of Safe Zones in Syria,” The Atlantic (November 10, 2015)

“ISIS Against Humanity,” The Atlantic (October 12, 2015)

“Bashar al-Assad and the Devil’s Endgame,” The Atlantic (September 28, 2015)

"The U.S. often Goes to War Very Overconfident about how the War will Turn Out," Salon (July 18, 2015)

 “The Upside of Down: How the U.S. Wins by Losing Wars,” New York Observer (July 8, 2015)

“Forgetting Afghanistan,” The Atlantic (June 24, 2015)

“Why has America Stopped Winning Wars,” The Atlantic (June 2, 2015)

“The Rise of Alien Warfare,” The National Interest (March/April 2015)

“Is the Whole World on Fire?” Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Note (December 2014)

“Gulliver’s Troubles: Great Powers and Failed States,” Foreign Policy Research Institute, E-Note (June 2012)

“The Obama Doctrine and the Lessons of Iraq,” Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Note (May 2012)

“Mission Impossible in Afghanistan,” Los Angeles Times (December 17, 2010)

“Jefferson’s Army of Nation-Builders,” New York Times (November 10, 2010)

“The Wars of Perception,” with Dominic Johnson, New York Times (November 28, 2006)