Anatol Lieven

Anatol Lieven, a senior editor at The National Interest, is a professor in the War Studies Department of King's College London and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. He is author of America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Pakistan: A Hard Country (PublicAffairs, 2011).


Essays

Securing Pakistan is far more important than “victory” in Afghanistan. And the U.S. counterinsurgency campaign is only stoking extremist flames in the Hindu Kush. Washington must pull back.

American pressure on Islamabad to crack down on insurgents threatens to split the military in two.

Sometimes our procedures do more harm than good. Pakistan may heal best on its own.

There are no textbook solutions for the problems of a country like Pakistan--but a creative approach can go a long way.

Hans Morgenthau and Reinhold Niebuhr--the fathers of American realism--understood that good intentions do not excuse failure.

Reviews

We thought the lessons of Vietnam could never be unlearned. But Washington warmongering heeds no warnings, plunging America into the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan. The depths of dysfunction behind these decisions seemingly know no bounds.

A book by former–Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov gives an insider’s account of espionage and intrigue in the Middle East.

We live in a world where the failures of a botched freedom agenda are everpresent. Yet no one in the foreign-policy establishment of either party seems to understand the changing realities of international affairs—or articulate coherent policy alt

Two of the authors of Ethical Realism and With All Our Might debate America’s future foreign-policy trajectory, weighing the relevance of realism, internationalism and militarism.

The Russian revolution of the nineties brought economic phantasmagoria, not reform. The leadership's hands are dirty, and so are the West's.

Commentary

The Western media has Russia all wrong.

Putin faces the herculean tasks of rooting out corruption and resetting ties with the West. Is he up to the challenge?

Washington must send a message. For their own sake, Pakistanis must listen.

The Pakistani counterinsurgency campaign has been both brutal and effective. But what happens when the army leaves?

America continues to back the wrong parties in Pakistan.  The state hasn't fallen apart yet—in spite of US intervention. 

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May 24, 2013