Micah Zenko
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Articles by Micah Zenko
Bookshelf - Red Teams
Bookshelf Techie Non-Techie The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander, Pete Blaber The Art of War, Sun Tzu The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi Inside Delta Force, Eric Haney Human Intelligence, Counterterrorism, and National Leadership: A Practical Guide, Gary Berntsen Maneuver Warfare Handbook (Westview Special Studies in Military Affairs), William S Lind Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence, Abram N.
Adults in a Room III
“Adults in a Room” is a series in collaboration with The Atlantic Council’s New American Engagement Initiative (NAEI). The series stems from NAEI’s monthly networking events that call on analysts to gather virtually and hash out a salient topic. The goal of this series is to give you a peek into their Zoom room and a deep understanding of the issue at hand in less than the time it takes to sip your morning coffee, without the jargon, acronyms, and stuffiness that often come with expertise.
Christen Linke Young
Christen Linke Young is taking a leave of absence from Brookings to volunteer for the Biden Team. Christen Linke Young is a fellow with the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy. Previously, she was the Principal Deputy Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, where she focused on developing cross-agency initiatives, implementing innovative policy solutions, and providing day-to-day operational leadership of the Department.
Trump's Post-Election Defiance Is How a Constitution Dies
Voice The United States’ stalled presidential transition may seem like a farce—but it’s still the biggest constitutional crisis since the Civil War. A copy of former President George Washington's personal copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights is viewed at Christie's auction house on June 15, 2012 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Before U.S. elected officials (including presidents), judges, government employees, and military personnel assume their positions, they make a pledge.
Secret Flight Shows Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman Joining to Face Biden
Report One thing is clear: The two leaders are bracing for an ill wind emanating from the new White House. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. FAYEZ NURELDINE/Sarah Silbiger/AFP/Getty Images Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent trip to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday raises the tantalizing prospect of Saudi Arabia joining the new alliance of Gulf Arab states with Israel.
The Dangerous Foreign-Policy Fallout of Trump’s COVID-19 Diagnosis
Voice The four ways the president’s illness can complicate national security decision-making—or invite foreign attacks. President Donald Trump gestures while speaking about mask wearing during a press conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Sept. 16, 2020. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re making some of our coronavirus pandemic coverage free for nonsubscribers. You can read those articles here and subscribe to our newsletters here.
When Terrorism (That Never Happened) Made Headlines in Sochi
Argument If attacks were unlikely at the Olympic Games, why was it spun as inevitable? Photo: VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images The XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, ended just as they began: with an ostentatious, exhaustive, and carefully scripted celebration of Russian heritage and culture. The 17 days of athletic competition featured all the riveting performances, unexpected disappointments, and weather-related updates that one would expect.
The Lethal Bureaucrat
Micah Zenko Who is John Brennan? SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images No politically appointed official in U.S. history has played such a prominent role in killing so many people outside of a war zone as John Brennan.
Donald Trump’s Lack of Grand Strategy Has Damaged America
One week before Donald Trump entered the White House in 2017, we argued in Foreign Policy that the president-elect did not have a grand strategy—and would never develop one.
America Is a Safe Place
More on: Defense and Security In yesterday’s post, I highlighted a piece that my colleague, Michael A.
Foreign Policy Is Structurally Racist
DON'T LOSE ACCESS: Your IP access to ForeignPolicy.com will expire on June 15. To ensure uninterrupted reading, please contact Rachel Mines, sales director, at rachel.mines@foreignpolicy.com. Voice A social revolution could transform domestic policy—but it won’t change the way policy is conducted abroad. National Security advisor Susan Rice and others listen while U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement to the press after a meeting with commanders at the Pentagon Oct. 8, 2014 in Washington.
Could Iran Test a Nuclear Bomb Within a Year? Original
A new International Atomic Energy Agency report reveals that Iran has doubled its stockpile of enriched uranium since February, but experts disagree on how quickly the country could build a nuclear bomb if it wanted to. Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear program under the JCPOA, a 2015 deal with six world powers.
The United States Will Learn Nothing From the Coronavirus Pandemic
DON'T LOSE ACCESS: Your IP access to ForeignPolicy.com will expire on June 15. To ensure uninterrupted reading, please contact Rachel Mines, sales director, at rachel.mines@foreignpolicy.com. Voice It’s the country’s biggest crisis in decades—and all signs suggest Americans will absorb all the wrong lessons from it.
The Myth of the Indispensable Nation
In 1996, political journalist Sidney Blumenthal and foreign policy historian James Chace struggled to come up with a memorable phrase to describe America’s post-Cold War role in the world. “Finally, together, we hit on it: ‘indispensable nation.’ Eureka! I passed it on first to Madeleine Albright,” Blumenthal recalled.
Coronavirus the Worst Intel Failure in U.S. History
Coronavirus the Worst Intel Failure in U.S. History The Trump administration's unprecedented indifference, even willful neglect, forced a catastrophic strategic surprise on to the American people Read Full Article »
The coronavirus is the worst intelligence failure in US history
Photograph: Yuri Gripas/EPA Last September, I met the vice-president for risk for a Fortune 100 company in Washington DC.
The Coronavirus Is the Worst Intelligence Failure in U.S. History
It's more glaring than Pearl Harbor and 9/11—and it's all the fault of Donald Trump's leadership.
The Coronavirus Is the Worst Intelligence Failure in U.S. History
Last September, I met the vice president for risk for a Fortune 100 company in Washington, D.C. I asked the executive—who previously had a long career as an intelligence analyst—the question you would ask any risk officer: “What are you most worried about?” Without pausing, this person replied, “A highly contagious virus that begins somewhere in China and spreads rapidly.” This vice president, whose company has offices throughout East Asia, explained the preventative mitigating steps the...
Coronavirus Anxiety Is a National Security Crisis. Here's What to Do About It.
Argument Here’s how to arm yourself for the health catastrophe caused by public anxiety. Protective N-95 face masks lie on a table at an office in Washington on Feb. 26. EVA HAMBACH/AFP via Getty Images The arrival in the United States of the new human coronavirus (which causes the coronavirus disease, COVID-19) certainly qualifies as a national security crisis. It is also a cause of widespread anxiety. The latter deserves to be a concern for policymakers, and the public, too.
Some Books I liked in 2019
Hey Folks, In no particular order, here are some books I read this year that I liked. Feel free to forward this to other foreign affairs/international relations nerds -- along with your recommendation of the Global Dispatches Podcast, of course! The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un by Anna Fifield This book is essentially a biography of Kim Jong Un -- which is no easy feat to pull off considering the mystery and secrecy that shrouds North Korea.
The “Afghanistan Papers” Show That Hypocrisy Has Become Standard Operating Procedure for the U.S. Government
Last week, the Washington Post released a landmark investigation into the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The foundation of the reporting was hundreds of interviews, recorded by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), of the officials and staffers who were tasked with devising and implementing Afghanistan policy.
Americans fear the wrong threats
The authors of a new book argue that national security “fearmongering” is causing U.S. leaders to focus more on the threats that Americans perceive—like terrorism and nuclear war—than the ones that exist at home, like gun violence and the opioid crisis.
A Foreign-Policy Cheat Sheet for the Democratic Debates
U.S. Foreign Policy United States At this week’s inaugural Democratic presidential debates—the first of a dozen scheduled over the next year—the candidates should be forced to fully reveal their foreign-policy principles and preferences. Of the two dozen notable candidates, only a few have substantive foreign-policy experience, including Joe Biden, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bernie Sanders.
Iran Has America’s Super Spy Drone. So What?
Micah Zenko Getting caught every once in a while is all part of the intelligence game. On May 1, 1960, an American U-2 surveillance plane was downed by a SA-2 surface-to-air missile over the Sverdlovsk area of the Soviet Union. The U-2’s mission — code-named Operation Grand Slam — was to photograph Soviet ballistic missile sites to inform the missile-gap debate raging in Washington.
Nudging the President
If you clicked on a link to read this column, you were likely influenced by a combination of factors: the title (often misleading or sensationalist), an accompanying picture (I bet someone in a uniform), where it appeared on the FP homepage (top is better than bottom), or how it was described in a tweet (short and pithy helps).
A Translation Guide to Foreign Policy Gibberish
Micah Zenko Wondering what is meant by 'all options are on the table'? A spokesperson will 'look into that' for you. Saul Loeb/AFP Evaluating U.S. foreign policy starts with the tricky task of understanding what U.S. foreign policy actually is. Analysts endowed with great forbearance can listen to the question-and-answer sessions with spokespersons from the White House, the State Department, or the Pentagon.
Nostalgia Is a National Security Threat
One of the most prevalent, and pernicious, biases in U.S. foreign-policy circles was best summarized by the political scientist John Mueller. Humans have a “tendency to look backward with misty eyes, to see the past as much more benign, simple, and innocent than it really was,” Mueller wrote in 1995. “That is, no matter how much better the present gets, the past gets better faster in reflection, and we are, accordingly, always notably worse off than we used to be.
Why Are We Feeling So Bad When Life Is So Good? Two Books Want Us to Accentuate the Positive
Nonfiction Image An onlooker at a Trump rally in Pensacola, Fla., Nov. 3, 2018, part of the populist wave that two new books examine to explain Americans’ current unhappiness. April 2, 2019 THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great By Ben Shapiro CLEAR AND PRESENT SAFETY The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans By Michael A. Cohen and Micah Zenko Why, exactly, are so many Americans so angry and unhappy?
Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans
In this compelling look at what they call the “Threat Industrial Complex,” Michael A. Cohen and Micah Zenko explain why politicians, policy analysts, academics, and journalists are misleading Americans about foreign threats and ignoring more serious national security challenges at home. Cohen and Zenko argue that we should ignore Washington’s threat mongering and focus instead on furthering extraordinary global advances in human development and economic and political cooperation.
Clear and Present Safety
Last August, the Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney performed what has become a quadrennial rite of passage in American presidential politics: he delivered a speech to the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. His message was rooted in another grand American tradition: hyping foreign threats to the United States. It is “wishful thinking,” Romney declared, “that the world is becoming a safer place. The opposite is true.
Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans
Main navigation Clear and Present Safety (Hardcover) The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans By Michael A. Cohen, Micah Zenko Yale University Press, 9780300222555, 272pp. Publication Date: March 26, 2019 List Price: 27.50* * Individual store prices may vary. Description An eye-opening look at the history of national security fear-mongering in America and how it distracts citizens from the issues that really matter What most frightens the average American? Terrorism.
The World Is Still Getting Better-Even Under Trump
Seven years ago, we argued in this magazine that U.S. foreign policy thinking was dominated by pervasive threat inflation—a tendency among U.S. leaders to exaggerate the dangers the country faces and in so doing distort foreign policy decision-making. This chronic embellishment and exaggeration occurred despite the fact that the world that the United States inhabits today is a remarkably safe and secure place.
James Mattis Wasn’t Ready to Serve in a Democracy
President Donald Trump’s decision to rapidly accelerate James Mattis’s termination as defense secretary by two months was deeply misguided. The outgoing defense secretary had offered enough time to nominate and confirm a replacement, and to prepare that person for forthcoming summits and congressional posture hearings. Trump instead ensured that Mattis was summarily forced out via tweet, rather than in the normal White House or Pentagon transition ceremony.
Who Is to Blame for the Doomed Iraqi Uprisings of 1991?
On February 15, 1991, four weeks into Operation Desert Storm , President George H.W. Bush, using identical language twice—at the White House and later at a Raytheon defense plant in Massachusetts—encouraged “the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside.” Bush’s message was beamed into Iraq via every international television and radio channel, while coalition aircraft dropped leaflets calling on Iraqi...
All Companies Will Eventually Collapse. This Includes AMZN
All Companies Will Eventually Collapse. This Includes AMZN Accepting eventual failure will help executives craft a blueprint to delay it.
6 Questions to Ask Before Starting Your Next War
The somnolent overseers of foreign policy on Capitol Hill have unexpectedly been stirred to action. Unfortunately, it required Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s order of the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi for policymakers to do their jobs.
Commentary: Why Leaders Should Expect Their Own Company's Collapse
During an all-hands meeting at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, CEO Jeff Bezos was recently asked about the technology giant’s future in light of recent retail industry bankruptcies. “Amazon is not too big to fail,” Bezos reportedly replied. “In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt.” “If we start to focus on ourselves, instead of focusing on our customers, that will be the beginning of the end,” he added.
The Pentagon Loves Saudi Arabia, in Sickness and in Health
The shocking allegations of Jamal Khashoggi's killing and dismemberment in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul have led to a rare open debate among politicians, pundits, and business leaders about the strategic wisdom of U.S.-Saudi relations. When the debate subsides, however, it's unlikely to have transformed America's long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf kingdom's regional allies, in any substantial way.
The Pentagon Loves Saudi Arabia, in Sickness and in Health
The shocking allegations of Jamal Khashoggi’s killing and dismemberment in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul have led to a rare open debate among politicians, pundits, and business leaders about the strategic wisdom of U.S.-Saudi relations. When the debate subsides, however, it’s unlikely to have transformed America’s long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf kingdom’s regional allies, in any substantial way.
Commentary: Leaders Can Make Really Dumb Decisions. This Exercise Can Fix That
The most consequential decision made by an American leader in the past quarter-century was President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003. Remarkably, the decision was made without a formal process, a careful consideration of the consequences through structured deliberations, the solicitation of outside experts’ views, or even a vote of Cabinet officials.
US Military Policy in the Middle East: An Appraisal
18 October 2018 Despite significant financial expenditure and thousands of lives lost, a fundamental shift in policy remains unimaginable at present. Authors Micah Zenko Whitehead Senior Fellow, US and the Americas Programme, Chatham House Summary Despite significant financial expenditure and thousands of lives lost, the American military presence in the Middle East retains bipartisan US support and incurs remarkably little oversight or public debate.
The Problem Isn’t Fake News From Russia. It’s Us.
In 1934, the investigative journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair ran in the California gubernatorial election as part of the End Poverty in California movement (EPIC). He proposed a sweeping progressive agenda that featured the introduction of pensions, increased income and property taxes on wealthy Californians, and the creation of a state-run network of cooperatives that put the unemployed to work.
Why is the U.S. helping to devastate Yemen?
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America Is Committing War Crimes and Doesn’t Even Know Why
Voice The United States has spent far more time obscuring its role in the Saudi-led war in Yemen than in explaining any rationale for it. Yemenis gather next to the destroyed bus at the site of a Saudi-led coalition air strike, that targeted the Dahyan market the previous day in the Huthi rebels' stronghold province of Saada on August 10, 2018.
Clear and Present Safety
An eye-opening look at the history of national security fear-mongering in America and how it distracts citizens from the issues that really matter What most frightens the average American? Terrorism. North Korea. Iran. But what if none of these are probable or consequential threats to America? What if the world today is safer, freer, wealthier, healthier, and better educated than ever before?
Democrats are 'placing party over country' by inflating Putin's threat to the US
Perceptions of foreign threats are socially constructed. Within American domestic politics, that means threats are largely constructed by the two major political parties. At any given time, one party holds the executive branch's vast national security powers and drives conversations around how foreign threats are framed.
Democrats are 'placing party over country' by inflating Putin's threat to the US
The American Conservative Union hosted its annual Conservative Political Action Conference to discuss conservative agenda, where they displayed buttons of possible 2020 presidential contenders in the Democratic Party. Alex Wong/Getty Perceptions of foreign threats are socially constructed. Within American domestic politics, that means threats are largely constructed by the two major political parties.
Is Trump Ready to Play Nice with Europe?
Daniel Barenboim made waves by declaring himself to be ashamed of being Israeli following the passage of Israel’s controversial Nationality Law. We have a law that confirms the Arab population as second-class citizens. It follows that this is a very clear form of apartheid. I don’t think the Jewish people lived for 20 centuries, mostly through persecution and enduring endless cruelties, in order to become the oppressors, inflicting cruelty on others. This new law does exactly that.
Democrats Will Regret Becoming the Anti-Russia Party
Democrats Will Regret Becoming the Anti-Russia Party Perceptions of foreign threats are socially constructed. Within American domestic politics, that means threats are largely constructed by the two major political parties. At any given time, one party holds the executive branch’s vast national security powers and drives conversations around how foreign threats are framed.
Meeting With North Korea Is a Win for America
Meeting With North Korea Is a Win for America Early in U.S. President Bill Clinton’s first term, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung reportedly asked visiting American scholars: “If Bill Clinton can meet with the president of South Korea, why couldn’t he meet with me?” Toward the end of Clinton’s second term, Marshal Jo Myong Rok of the Korean People’s Army met with the president in the White House, where he pleaded with Clinton to meet with Kim Il Sung’s son Kim Jong Il: “I need to secure your...
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