Essays

Robert Kagan: Machiavellian in Liberal Disguise, Raritan, Spring 2020.

How Many Cheers for the Peace Pact? (review of Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro, The Internationalists), American Political Thought 9 (Winter 2020): 144-169.

John Mearsheimer and the Future of the Damaged Liberal Dream, Review of John J. Mearsheimer, The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018). The National Interest, January 10, 2019.

Time to Slap a Tariff on Oil Imports?, The American Conservative, March 11, 2020

This Wasn’t How Trump’s War on Iran Was Supposed to Go, The American Conservative, September 17, 2019

A Roundtable on Jasper M. Tratsch, The Genesis of America: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Formation of National Identity, 1793-1815,” Passport, September 2019

Fractured: Trump’s Foreign Policy After Two Years, Policy Series, H-Diplo, January 29, 2019.

Review in H-Diplo Roundtable on Joshua Simon, The Ideology of Creole Revolution: Imperialism and Independence in American and Latin American Thought, March 11, 2019

Why the United States Won’t Be Able to Quit Syria, The American Conservative, January 4, 2019.

Behind America’s New Nationalism, Daniel S. Hamilton and Teija Tiilikainen, eds. Domestic Determinants of Foreign Policy in the European Union and the United States (Washington, D.C., 2018)

Roundtable on Hendrickson, Republic in Peril: American Empire and the Liberal Tradition, H-Diplo, December 3, 2018

We Need a ‘New Internationalism‘: The Author and Professor in Conversation, by Patrick Lawrence, in The Nation, November 2, 2018.

Is America an Empire?, The National Interest (November/December 2017).

American Diplomatic History and International Thought: A Constitutional Perspective, International Relations (U.K) (September 2017).

Review of Sönke Kunkel, Empire of Pictures: Global Media and the 1960s Remaking of American Foreign Policy; John A. Thompson, A Sense of Power: The Roots of America’s Global Role. American Historical Review 122 (2017): 198-99.

“In Defense of Pluralism,” in Todd Breyfogle, Paul Franco, and Eric Kos, eds., Philosophy, Politics & the Conversation of Mankind: Essays in Honor of Timothy Fuller (Colorado College Studies, 2016).

Over the Top: CC’s Misuse of the Disciplinary Process,” The Cipher Magazine (Colorado College, 2016)

“America’s World Leadership,” Michael A. Genovese, ed. The Quest for Leadership: Thomas E. Cronin and His Influence on Presidential Studies and Political Science (Cambria Press, 2015).

Machiavelli and Machiavellism, Timothy Fuller, ed., Machiavelli’s Legacy: The Prince after Five Hundred Years (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).

“Escaping Insecurity: The American Founding and the Control of Violence,” Patrick Griffin and Robert G. Ingram, eds., Between Sovereignty and Anarchy: The Politics of Violence in the American Revolutionary Era (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2015).

Russia’s Revenge, American Review (Australia), May 1, 2014

Scotland and Ukraine: A Speculative History The National Interest, September 16, 2014

The ISIS Challenge: A Tough Problem, Even Tougher Solutions, The National Interest, Aug 15, 2014

Revolution and Intervention: A Delicate Balance, Destroyed, The National Interest, Aug 28, 2014

The Thrasybulus Syndrome: Israel’s War on Gaza, The National Interest, July 29, 2014

The MH17 Disaster: Part of a Much Bigger Problem, The National Interest, July 23, 2014.

Germany and America: Headed For a Divorce? The National Interest, July 15, 2014.

Ukraine’s Dangerous Shift Towards Chaos, The National Interest, July 11, 2014

Poland and America: Together Forever?, The National Interest, July 8, 2014

Syria and Iraq: Different Countries, Same War, The National Interest, June 17, 2014

The Democratic Values at Stake in Ukraine, The National Interest, March 18, 2014

The West’s Illusions about Ukraine, The National Interest, March 11, 2014

“Making Peace with War: The National Security Complex and the American Purpose,” William H. Natter III and Jason Brooks, eds., American Strategy and Purpose: Reflections on Foreign Policy and National Security in an Era of Change (Lexington, MA: Council for Emerging National Security Affairs, 2014.)

“Bringing the State System Back In: The Significance of the Union in Early American History,” in Peter Onuf and Peter Thompson, eds., State and Citizen: British American and the Early United States (University of Virginia Press, 2013).

An Oppressive Power from the Beginning (Review of Eliga Gould, Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire), Library of Law and Liberty, November 10, 2013.

International Peace: One Hundred Years On, Ethics and International Affairs, Summer 2013. (Lead essay in symposium marking 100^th anniversary of Carnegie Institute for Ethics and International Affairs)

Oil and Water, Survival (review of three books on Deepwater Horizon oil spill), Vol 54, No. 1 (2012)

“Articles of Confederation,” Michael Kazin, ed., The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History (Princeton University Press, 2011)

Comment, Roundtable on Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. Rivista di Studi Nord Americani 22 (2011).

In the Mirror of Antiquity: The Problem of American Empire, in Enduring Empire: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics, David Tabachnick and Toivo Koivukoski, eds. (University of Toronto Press, 2009).

Author’s Response, Roundtable on Union, Nation or Empire, h-diplo, July 22, 2009,

“Europe’s America Dream,” Axess, (Sweden) November 2006

Preemption, Unilateralism, Hegemony: The American Tradition? Orbis (Spring 2006).

Of Power and Providence: The Old U.S. and the New EU, Policy Review (February/March 2006)

A Test of Power: The United States and Iran (with Robert W. Tucker), The National Interest (Fall 2006)

The Freedom Crusade (with Robert W. Tucker), The National Interest, Fall 2005

The Curious Case of American Hegemony: Imperial Aspirations and National Decline, World Policy Journal, Summer 2005

Revisions in Need of Revising: What Went Wrong in the Iraq War (with Robert W. Tucker), Survival, Summer 2005. Also published by the Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College (pdf).

The Flip Side of the Record, (reply to Robert Kagan), Foreign Affairs, March/April 2005.

The First Union: Nationalism vs. Internationalism in the American Revolution, Peter S. Onuf and Eliga Gould, eds., Empire and Nation: The American Revolution and the Atlantic World (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005)

Independence and Union: The Foundations of American Internationalism, Orbis (Winter 2004/05)

The Sources of American Legitimacy, (with Robert W. Tucker), Foreign Affairs (November/December 2004).

A Dissenter’s Guide to Foreign Policy, World Policy Journal, Spring 2004

The Lion and the Lamb: Realism and Liberalism Reconsidered, World Policy Journal, Spring 2003

Preserving the Imbalance of Power, Ethics and International Affairs, Spring 2003

The New Rome, review of Andrew J. Bacevich, American Empire, The American Conservative, January 2003

Kalter Verstand. Handelt Saddam Hussein irrational? Süddeutsche Zeitung, Nr. 263; Suite 13, November 15, 2002

Saddam’s Hobbesian Instinct for Survival, Financial Times, October 14, 2002

Toward Universal Empire: The Dangerous Quest for Absolute Security, World Policy Journal Fall, 2002, 1-11 [excerpted and partially re-written for December 2002 issue of Harper’s (“The Course of Empire”)].

Imperialism vs. Internationalism: The United States and World Order, Gaiko Forum (Japan)(Fall, 2002)

All the President’s Acumen: The Paradox of Nixon’s Foreign Policy, Review of William Bundy, A Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency, Foreign Affairs May/June 1998.

In Our Own Image: The Sources of American Conduct in World Affairs, The National Interest (Winter, 1997‑98)

In Defense of Realism: A Commentary on Just and Unjust Wars, Ethics and International Affairs (1997)

“Thomas Jefferson,” (with Robert W. Tucker), Bruce W. Jentleson and Thomas G. Paterson, eds., Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 1997)

The Democratist Crusade: Intervention, Economic Sanctions, and Engagement, World Policy Journal (Winter 1994‑95)

The Recovery of Internationalism, Foreign Affairs (September/October 1994)

“The Crisis of the State,” Curtis Cook, ed. Constitutional Predicament: Canada After the Referendum of 1992 (McGill Queens University Press, 1994)

America and Bosnia, (with Robert W. Tucker), The National Interest (Fall 1993)

The Ethics of Collective Security, Ethics and International Affairs 1993

The Renovation of American Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs Spring 1992.

Over a Barrel in Yugoslavia, New York Times, June 18, 1992.

The End of American History: American Security, the National Purpose, and the New World Order, in Graham Allison and Gregory Treverton, eds., Rethinking America’s Security (Norton & the American Assembly, 1992),

Migration in Law and Ethics: A Realist Perspective, in Brian Barry and Robert Goodin, eds., Free Movement (Penn State University Press, 1992).

“The Significance of Munich, The Meaning of Munich Fifty Years Later, Kenneth M. Jensen and David Wurmser, eds. (United States Institute of Peace, 1990).

Thomas Jefferson and American Foreign Policy, (with Robert W. Tucker), Foreign Affairs (Spring 1990).

American Strategy: Past and Future, Michael Mandelbaum, ed., America’s Defense (Holmes and Meier, 1989).

Trivial Pursuits, (review of Walter LaFeber, The American Age: United States Foreign Policy At Home and Abroad Since 1750), The New Republic, May 1, 1989.