Published Books

• Twilight of the Titans: Great Power Decline and Retrenchment (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018). With Joseph M. Parent. [link] Reviewed in Survival [link], The Atlantic [link], H-Diplo/ISSF [link], and Journal of East Asian Studies [link]. Featured on War on the Rocks Holiday Reading list [link].

• Networks of Domination: The Social Foundations of Peripheral Conquest in International Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). [link] Reviewed in Foreign Affairs [link], Perspectives on Politics [link], and H-Diplo/ISSF [link]

Academic Articles

• "'A Brave People United': Warfare, Race, and the Making of the Martial Sikh," Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (early view). [link]

• "Repertoires," in The Oxford Handbook of International Political Sociology, Stacie E. Goddard, George Lawson, and Ole Jacob Sending, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2025). [link]

• "The Dynamics of US Retrenchment in the Middle East," Parameters, 54, no. 2 (Summer 2024). With Joseph M. Parent. [link] 

• "In Search of Status: China and the USA in United Nations Speeches, 1970-2020," Chinese Journal of International Politics, 17, no. 1 (2024). With Joseph M. Parent. [link]

• "Civilized Barbarism: What We Miss When We Ignore Colonial Violence," International Organization, vol. 77, no. 4 (2023). [link]

• "From 'Butcher and Bolt' to 'Bugsplat': Race, Counterinsurgency, and International Politics," Security Studies, vol. 32, no. 4/5 (2023). With Stacie E. Goddard. [link]

• "Grand Strategies of Declining Powers," in The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy, Thierry Balzacq and Ronald R. Krebs eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021). With Joseph M. Parent. [link] 

• "'The Parliament of Man, Federation of the World': Repertoires of Statecraft, the Hague Conferences, and the Making of the Liberal Order," Diplomacy & Statecraft, vol. 32, no. 4 (2021). [link]

• "Are You Experienced? U.S. Ambassadors and Militarized Interstate Disputes," Foreign Policy Analysis, vol. 17, no. 4 (2021). [link] [replication data and appendix]

• "The Status of Status in World Politics," World Politics, 73, no.2 (April 2021). With Joseph M. Parent. [link]

• "'The Most Potent and Irresistible Moral Influence': Public Opinion, Rhetorical Coercion, and the Hague Conferences," Global Policy, vol. 11, no. S3 (October 2020). [link]

• "The Governor's Dilemma in Overseas Empires," in The Governor's Dilemma: Indirect Governance Beyond Principles and Agents, Kenneth Abbot, Bernhard Zangl, Duncan Snidal, and Philipp Genschel, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020). [link]

• "Repertoires of Statecraft: Instruments and Logics of Power Politics," International Relations, vol. 33, no. 2 (March 2019). With Stacie E. Goddard and Daniel H. Nexon. [link]

• "America First? Explaining Continuity and Change in Trump's Foreign Policy," Political Science Quarterly, vol. 133, no. 3 (Fall 2018). [link]

• "Embedded Authority: A Relational Network Approach to Hierarchy in World Politics," Review of International Studies, vol. 44, no. 1 (January 2018). [link]

• "'Retribution Must Succeed Rebellion': The Colonial Origins of Counterinsurgency Failure," International Organization, vol. 67, no. 2 (April 2013). [link] [replication data file, do file]

• “Correspondence – Decline and Retrenchment: Promise or Peril?” International Security, vol. 36, no. 4 (Spring 2012). With Joseph M. Parent. [link] 

• “Graceful Decline? The Surprising Success of Great Power Retrenchment,” International Security, vol. 35, no. 4 (Spring 2011). With Joseph M. Parent. [link] [supporting material]

• “Is Imperial Rule Obsolete? Assessing the Barriers to Overseas Adventurism,” Security Studies, vol. 18, no. 1 (January 2009). [link]

• "Those Who Forget Historiography are Doomed to Republish It: Empire, Imperialism, and Contemporary Debates about American Power,” Review of International Studies, vol. 35, no. 1 (January 2009). [link]

• “Correspondence – The Role of Hierarchy in International Politics,” International Security, vol. 32, no. 4 (Spring 2008). [link] [supporting material]

• “Useful Fiction or Miracle Maker: the Competing Epistemological Foundations of Rational Choice Theory,” American Political Science Review, vol. 97, no. 4 (November 2003). [link]

• “Correspondence – Start the Evolution Without Us,” International Security, vol. 26, no. 1 (Summer 2001). With Duncan S.A. Bell. [link]

Popular Articles

• "Biden Wants to Tap Friends and Party Loyalists to Fill High-Level Ambassadorships. That's Nothing New," Washington Post Monkey Cage blog (22 June 2021). [link]

• "Trump Didn't Shrink U.S. Military Commitments Abroad—He Expanded Them: The President's False Promise of Retrenchment," Foreign Affairs online (3 December 2019). With Joseph M. Parent. [link]

• "The Road to Recovery: How Once Great Powers Became Great Again," Washington Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3 (Fall 2018). With Joseph M. Parent. [link]

• "The Retrenchment War: Why the War Against ISIS Will Be Fought on the Cheap," Foreign Affairs online (24 September 2014). With Joseph M. Parent. [link]

• "The Banality of Retrenchment: What Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel Gets Wrong About This Year's Defense Budget," Foreign Affairs online (9 March 2014). With Joseph M. Parent. [link]

• ”The Wisdom of Retrenchment: America Must Cut Back to Move Forward” Foreign Affairs, vol. 90, no. 6 (November/December 2011). With Joseph M. Parent. [link]

• “Rebalancing American Foreign Policy” Daedalus, vol. 138, no. 2 (Spring 2009). [link]

Book Reviews and Roundtables

• "Review of Matthieu Grandpierron Nostalgic Victory as a Cause of War," Journal of Military History, 88, no. 4 (October 2024). [link]

• "Roundtable on Michelle Murray The Struggle for Recognition in International Politics," H-Diplo/ISSF (15 March 2024). [link]

• "Roundtable Post-Mortem on the Iraq War," H-Diplo/ISSF (7 April 2023). [link]

• "Commentary on 2002 National Security Strategy," H-Diplo/ISSF (23 December 2022). With Joseph M. Parent. [link]

• "Review of Richard W. Maass, The Picky Eagle: How Democracy and Xenophobia Limited U.S. Territorial Expansion," Perspectives on Politics, 19, no.1 (March 2021). [link]

• "Roundtable on Teaching the American Empire Debate," H-Diplo (20 December 2019). [link]

• "Roundtable on Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, Rising Titans, Falling Giants," H-Diplo/ISSF (28 October 2019). [link]

• "Review of Eric Grynaviski America's Middlemen: Power at the Edge of Empire," Perspectives on Politics, vol. 17, no. 3 (September 2019). [link]

• "Roundtable on Stephen M. Walt The Hell of Good Intentions," H-Diplo/ISSF (15 July 2019). [link]

• "Policy Roundtable: The Pursuit of Military Superiority," Texas National Security Review (26 June 2018). [link]

• "Review of Thomas J. Wright, All Measures Short of War," Political Science Quarterly, vol. 133, no. 1 (Summer 2018). [link] 

• "Roundtable on Barry R. Posen, Restraint," H-Diplo/ISSF (11 July 2016). [link]

• "The Politics of Great Power Retrenchment," International Studies Quarterly symposium (10 November 2015). [link]

• "Roundtable on Lloyd C. Gardner, Killing Machine," H-Diplo (29 September 2014). [link]

• "Roundtable on Robert Lieber, Power and Willpower in the American Future," H-Diplo/ISSF (22 July 2013). [link]

• "Roundtable on Keith Shimko, The Iraq Wars and America's Military Revolution," H-Diplo/ISSF (18 March 2013). [link]

• "Review of Ayse Zarakol, After Defeat," Perspectives on Politics, vol. 10, no. 2 (June 2012). [link]

• "Roundtable on Stephen Carter, The Violence of Peace," H-Diplo (22 March 2012). [link]

• "Roundtable on Elizabeth Saunders, Leaders at War," H-Diplo/ISSF (15 February 2012). [link]

• "Review of Wallace Thies, Why NATO Endures," Political Science Quarterly, vol. 125, no. 3 (Fall 2012). [link]

• "Roundtable on David Edelstein, Occupational Hazards," H-Diplo (15 May 2009). [link]