I am Associate Professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where I serve on the core faculty of the Security Studies Program and as the International Politics Field chair. I am also Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. My research focuses on civil-military relations, military effectiveness, defense policy, deterrence and escalation, and Persian Gulf security issues. My most recent book is ​The Dictator's Army: Battlefield Effectiveness in Authoritarian Regimes (Cornell University Press, 2015). I am currently writing a book on nuclear escalation in conventional wars. Previously, I was a professor at The George Washington University, where I was also a member of the Institute for Security & Conflict Studies.

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Header image:  children playing on a captured M41 in Hue, Vietnam