I am Associate Professor of Security Studies in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. 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.

---

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