Nikolas K. Gvosdev

Carnegie Council Senior Fellow, U.S. Global Engagement Initiative (USGE); U.S. Naval War College

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

AUG 3, 2018 Article

The Vision: Saving the Old or Building the New?

Senior fellow Nikolas Gvosdev unpacks why some scholars seek to save and preserve the U.S. role in the "liberal international order," and why others ...

JUL 26, 2018 Podcast

Global Ethics Weekly: Helsinki's Aftermath & the "Montenegro Test"

The July 16 summit and press conference in Helsinki brought the words "treason" and "blackmail" into mainstream conversations about the Trump White House and put an ...

CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/buschap/2260006019">buschap</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">(CC)</a>

JUL 23, 2018 Article

Is a Democratic "Blue Wave" Really Coming?

Grass-roots frustration within the Democratic Party could lead to the Left's own version of a Trump phenomenon, writes Nikolas Gvosdev in "The National Interest." What ...

JUL 19, 2018 Article

The Montenegro Test

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, President Donald Trump seemed to agree with his host's assessment that it would not be worth American blood or ...

JUL 11, 2018 Article

Stamford Grapples with American Engagement

At the World Affairs Forum in Stamford on July 10, participants discussed the topic of American engagement in global affairs. Can the United States still advance ...

JUL 6, 2018 Article

Trump the Disrupter

Lawrence Freedman has authored a fascinating essay, "Authentic Trump versus the Trump Administration: Donald Trump as Foreign Policy Disrupter." It raises questions that have been ...

JUL 5, 2018 Podcast

Global Ethics Weekly: Trump's "First-Order Questions" & NATO Defense Spending

Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev looks at some basic questions Trump is asking about the post-Cold War alliance structures. Referencing a recent panel with ...

JUN 28, 2018 Podcast

Global Ethics Weekly: Orbán's Hungary, the EU, & a "Values-Free Alliance"

As Viktor Orbán continues to enact illiberal policies in Hungary, some, including Harvard's Yascha Mounk, have called for the state to be expelled from ...

JUN 22, 2018 Article

A "Values-Free" Trans-Atlantic Relationship?

Can an enduring and effective trans-Atlantic relationship be constructed and maintained without reference to commonly-shared values, in other words, can there be a "values-free" partnership?

L to R: Colin Dueck, Nikolas Gvosdev, Kori Schake. CREDIT: Amanda Ghanooni

JUN 13, 2018 Podcast

Restoring Trust: How Can the American Public Regain its Confidence in its National Security Apparatus?

There is a huge divide in the way Americans assess U.S. foreign policy. Take for example, the June G7 meeting, which ended in a ...