Nikolas K. Gvosdev is a senior fellow for the U.S. Global Engagement Initiative (USGE) at Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
He is also a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, the director of the Policy Analysis sub-course in the National Security Affairs Department, and the Captain Jerome E. Levy Chair in economic geography and national security.
Gvosdev was the editor of The National Interest and remains a senior editor at the magazine. In addition, he holds a non-residential senior fellowship at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is a co-author of U.S. Foreign Policy and Defense Strategy: The Evolution of an Incidental Superpower (2015). He previously published Russian Foreign Policy: Interests, Vectors and Sectors (with Christopher Marsh) in 2013.
Gvosdev is a frequent commentator on U.S. foreign policy and international relations, Russian and Eurasian affairs, and developments in the Middle East.
Featured Work
SEP 9, 2019 • Article
Transactionalism and U.S. Foreign Aid
A draft of a new presidential directive on American foreign aid suggests that transactionalism will shift from being a rhetorical device to an actual defining ...
SEP 4, 2019 • Article
What is the Status Quo for the Climate?
At various points in history, changes in climate contributed to the movement of people and the collapse of empires. How will the current changes in ...
AUG 23, 2019 • Article
The Ethics of Trade with China and Authoritarian Upgrading
Increased foreign investment and engagement is producing, not democratization, but "authoritarian upgrading," where selected reforms are designed to legitimize a softer authoritarianism. This presents an ...
AUG 22, 2019 • Podcast
The 2020 Election & the View from Overseas, with Nikolas Gvosdev
As the 2020 election begins to come into focus, Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev details the foreign policy cleavages in the Democratic Party. Plus, referencing Nahal Toosi's ...
AUG 20, 2019 • Podcast
Ethics & the U.S.-China Trade War, with Nikolas Gvosdev
What role should ethics play in the U.S.-China trade war? Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev looks at these economic tensions in the context of ...
AUG 20, 2019 • Article
Ethical Considerations in a Trade War with China
Are there ethical considerations that need to be factored in as part of assessing the merits of a "trade war" with the People's Republic of ...
AUG 20, 2019 • Article
Beyond Trump
Some countries are now coming to the same conclusions reached by the U.S. Global Engagement program: the 2016 election was not a "blip," but represents ...
JUL 31, 2019 • Article
Democratic Candidates and Foreign Policy
Which foreign policy narratives have emerged from the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates? Will it be restorationist, democratic community, America First, retrenchment/redefinition, reindustrialization/regeneration, or climate ...
JUN 19, 2019 • Podcast
Foreign Policy & the 2020 Democratic Candidates, with Nikolas Gvosdev
Will Joe Biden's "restorationist" foreign policy resonate with voters? What would a "progressive" approach to international relations look like for Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders? ...
JUN 12, 2019 • Article
The Anti-Narrative
Among the electorate, especially since the 2016 election, there is a counter-narrative at play regarding the role of the U.S. in international affairs. This "anti-narrative" ...