Education

B.S. Cornell 1966
Ph.D. Ohio State 1972

Publications

Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.

Safeguarding Democratic Captialism (Princeton University Press, 2017).

Peril: Facing National Security Challenges, co-edited with Will Hitchcock (e-book, University of Virginia Press, 2016)

Shaper Nations: Strategies for A Changing World, co-edited with Jeff Legro and Will Hitchcock (Harvard University Press, 2016).

In Uncertain Times: U.S. Foreign Policy After the Berlin Wall and 9/11, co-edited with Jeff Legro (Cornell University Press, 2011).

Cambridge History of the Cold War, 3 vols., co-edited with Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

To Lead the World: American Strategy After the Bush Doctrine, co-edited with Jeff Legro (Oxford University Press, 2008).

For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War (Hill & Wang, 2007).  

• Winner of the George Louis Beer Prize, American Historical Association, 2008.

The Specter of Communism: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1917-1953 (Hill & Wang, 1994).

A Preponderance of Power: National Security, The Truman Administration, and the Cold War. Stanford University Press, 1992.

• Winner of the Bancroft, Hoover, and Ferrell Prizes, 1993.

The Elusive Quest: America's Pursuit of European Stability and French Security, 1919-1933. University of North Carolina Press, 1979.

Most Recent Articles and Essays:

“Iraq After Twenty Years,” Liberties, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Spring 2023): 162-84.

“Bush, 9/11, and the Roots of the Iraq War,” Foreign Affairs, March 23, 2023, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/bush-911-and-roots-iraq-war.

“What Really Took America to War in Iraq,” The Atlantic, January 23, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/fear-power-and-hubris-bush-and-iraq-war/672759/.

“Ruminating During a Pandemic,” Diplomatic History, vol. 45  No. 3 (2021): 517-24.

“The Decider: Why Bush Chose War in Iraq,” Foreign Affairs, November/December, 2020 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2020-10-13/decider.   

“China Isn’t the Soviet Union. Confusing the Two is Dangerous,” The Atlantic, December 2, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/cold-war-china-purely-optional/601969/.

“Avoiding Another Cold War,” China International Strategy Review, 1 (2019): 205-12.

“Divide and Invest: Why the Marshall Plan Worked,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2018, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2018-06-14/divide-and-invest.         

“The Strategic Thinking that Made America Great: Europe First and Why It Still Matters,” Foreign Affairs, August 10, 2018, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-08-10/strategic-thinking-made-america-great.

“The Worst First Year of Foreign Policy Ever,” Foreign Policy, September 19, 2017.

“Trump’s Delusional National Security Policy,” Foreign Affairs, December 21, 2017, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/trumps-delusional-national-security-strategy.

Research 

I continue to write articles and essays about the Cold War, political economy, and national security.

Awards and Honors

Miegunyah Distinguished Fellowship, University of Melbourne, Fall 2015

UVA Thomas Jefferson Award for excellence in scholarship, 2014 

Visiting Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Bologne, April-May 2014

Graebner Prize for career achievement and contributions, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2012

Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center, 2010-11.

Visiting Scholar, Christ College, Cambridge University, Fall 2007.

Randolph Jennings Fellow, United States Institute of Peace, 2004-2005.

Henry Kissinger Fellow, Library of Congress, 2004-2005.

Harmsworth Professor, University of Oxford, 2002-2003.

Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center, 2001-2002.

Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, 1997-2001.

President, Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations, 1994.

Fellowship, Norwegian Nobel Peace Institute, 1993, 1997, 2011.

American Council of Learned Societies, Fellowships, Grants-in-Aid, 1973, 1984-85.

Lehrman Institute Fellowship, 1984-85.