Selected book reviews, essays, and other writings
“It May Be Different Than You Think,” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 6. No. 1, Winter 2022/2023.
“The Gap Has Been Bridged!” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 5. No. 4, Fall 2022.
“Introduction: The Stunning Impact of Robert Jervis,” Francis J. Gavin, in Remembering Robert Jervis Roundtable, Texas National Security Review, September 5th, 2022.
“Time to Rethink America’s Nuclear Strategy,” Francis J. Gavin, Foreign Affairs, September 5th, 2022.
“I was Wrong, Now What?” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 5. No. 3, Summer 2022.
“With Great-Power Crisis Comes Great-Power Opportunity,” Foreign Affairs, June 9th, 2022.
“Macron’s Flawed Vision for Europe,” with Alina Polyakova, Foreign Affairs, January 19th, 2022.
“Is Team Biden Winning?” War on the Rocks, December 30th, 2021
“What if we are Wrong?” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 4. No. 3, Summer 2021.
“Economics and U.S. National Security,” War on the Rocks, June 29th, 2021.
“Future Proof,” Engelsberg Ideas, May 28th, 2021.
“Revise!” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 4. No. 2, Spring 2021.
“Learning from the Big, Bold 1990s Debates over the post-Cold War World,“ Engelsberg Ideas, February 22nd, 2021.
“What now?” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, Winter 2020.
“Blame it on the Blob? How to Evaluate American Grand Strategy,” War on the Rocks, August 21, 2020.
With James B. Steinberg, “Foreign Policy Needs a Road Map,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2020.
“Whither War?” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 3, No. 3, Summer 2020.
“The Best of the Brightest? Ideas and Their Consequences,” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, Spring 2020.
“Pandemic and the Plight of Public Policy,” War on the Rocks, April 2nd, 2020.
“Does Might Make Right? Individuals, Ethics, and Exceptionalism,” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2020.
“Asking the Right Questions about the Past and Future of World Order,” War on the Rocks, January 2020.
“War with Words,” Introductory Essay, Vol. 2, No. 3, Texas National Security Review, November 2019.
“Bill Burns and the Lost Art of Diplomacy,” Journal of Strategic Studies, 2019.
“Nuclear Weapons and the Future of American Grand Strategy,” SAIS Review of International Affairs, Summer-Fall 2019.
“Patterns And Purpose,” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, August 2019
“Remembering Janne,” War on the Rocks, June 2019.
“Reviewing Blues,” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, February 2019
With Hal Brands, “The Historical Profession Is Committing Slow-Motion Suicide,” War on the Rocks, December 10, 2018
“The Last Word: Goodbye To All That,” Passport, April 2018
Review, David Edelstein, Over the Horizon: Time, Uncertainty, and the Rise of Great Powers, for the International Security Studies Forum, March 2018
“It’s Never Been a Better Time to Study IR,” February 20th, 2018 Foreign Policy
“Must We Mean What We Say? Making Sense Of The Nuclear Posture Review” War on the Rocks, February 2018
“Re-Imagining the World: Reflections on the Future of World Order,” War on the Rocks, January 9th, 2018
“Texas National Security Review: Who We Are, What We Do, And Why You Should Care,” Introductory Essay, Texas National Security Review, October 2017
“Un-Discipline Yourself: Reflections On Ideas For A Disordered World,” War on the Rocks, July 12, 2017
“Wonder And Worry In An Age Of Distraction: Notes On American Exceptionalism For My Young Friends,” War on the Rocks, July 4, 2017
“Policy and the Publicly Minded Professor,” Journal of Strategic Studies, 2017
“What’s In A Name? The Genius Of Eisenhower,” War on the Rocks, June 2017
“We Need to Talk: The Past, Present, and Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy,” January 2nd, 2017, War on the Rocks
“Thinking Historically: A Guide for Strategy and Statecraft,” November 17th, 2016, War on the Rocks
Introduction, H-Diplo Roundtable, Or Rabinowitz. Bargaining on Nuclear Tests: Washington And Its Cold War Rivals. Published by H-Diplo/ISSF on 16 November 2015
“To Stem the Tide: Nuclear History, American Interests, and the Iran Deal,” August 20, 2015, War on the Rocks
“Friends or Frenemies?: The puzzling foundations of the Anglo-American special relationship,” The American Interest, June 2015
Introduction, H-Diplo/ISSF Forum on Andreas Wenger, Roland Popp (eds.).“Special Issue: The Origins of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime.” Published by H-Diplo/ISSF on 18 May 2015
“History and America’s Atomic Future: Four Questions on Nuclear Statecraft,” April 15, 2015, War on the Rocks
“Breaking Discipline and Closing Gaps? — The State of International Relations Education,” February 5th, 2015, War on the Rocks
“What New Academic Research Can Teach Us About Nuclear Weapons – A Symposium,” July 8th, 2014, The Monkey Cage/Washington Post,
“Why UT President Powers is the best at what he does,” July 7, 2014, Dallas Morning News,
“What We Talk About When We Talk About Nuclear Weapons: A Review Essay,“ and, “What We Do, And Why it Matters: A Response to FKS,” H-Diplo/ISSF June 2014
“History, Security Studies, and the July Crisis,” Journal of Strategic Studies, Volume 37, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 319-331
Review of Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, “The Malta Summit and US-Soviet Relations: Testing the Waters Amidst Stormy Seas,” Cold War International History Project e-Dossier No. 40.
Review of Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, American Umpire, for Passport, Fall 2014
“Free to be You and Me,” review of Thomas W. Zeiler, “Requiem for the Common Man: Class, the Nixon Economic Shock, and the Perils of Globalization,” Diplomatic History 37:1 (January 2013): 1-23.
“Lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis,” The National Interest, October 26th, 2012,
“Hiroshima: An Uncertain and Contested Legacy,” Federation of American Scientists, August 6th, 2012
“Re-thinking World Power, from Shanghai to Silicon Valley,” National Intelligence Council: Global Trends 2030, July 23rd, 2012.
With James B. Steinberg, “Why Policymakers and Scholars Ignore Each Other and what can be done about it,” Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 6, No. 4, Spring 2012.
With James B. Steinberg, “The Unknown Unknowns,” Foreign Policy, February 14th, 2012,
“How Worried Should we be about Nuclear Proliferation? Not Very,” Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2010.
Interview, “How to Deal with Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions,” PRI’s The World, March 9, 2010.
“Getting History Right,” McKinsey & Co., What Matters, March 31st, 2009.
“A Tribute to Elspeth Davies Rostow,” January 2008,
Review of William Glenn Gray, “Floating the System: Germany, the United States, and the Breakdown of Bretton Woods, 1969-1973” Diplomatic History, Vol. 31, No. 2 (April 2007,
Review of “Architects of Globalism: Building a New World Order during World War II,” by Patrick J. Hearden, for Journal of Cold War Studies, Summer, 2005, pp. 185-188.
“Both Sticks and Carrots” review essay of “U.S. Economic Statecraft for Survival, 1933-1991: of Sanctions, Embargoes, and Economic Warfare,” by Alan P. Dobson, Diplomatic History, Spring 2004.
Review of “Saving International Capitalism during the Early Truman Presidency: The National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Problems,” Journal of American History, June 2003.
Editorial, “The Walt Rostow I knew and treasured,” Austin American-Statesman, February 22, 2003.
“Young Leaders Examine the World after 9/11,” American Council on Germany Working Report, Winter 2003
Review of “Seeing Diplomacy through Bankers’ Eyes: The World Bank, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Crisis, and the Aswan High Dam,” by Amy Staples, for H-Diplo, August 4, 2002.
Editorial, “Harry Middleton set a standard,” Austin American-Statesman, Sunday, September 8, 2001.
Editorial, “How will Americans know when we’ve won?” Austin American-Statesman, Sunday, September 16, 2001.
“Choosing Tragedy in Vietnam,” Orbis, Winter 2001.
“Economists to the Rescue! (A Review of Eichengreen, Krugman, and Soloman),” Orbis, Spring 2000.
“The Presidency and the Fed: The Making of American Economic Policy,” The Miller Center Report, Spring 1999.
“Acheson, Nixon, and the Politics of Deception,” Orbis, Spring 1999.
“It’s Not Pretty, but It’s Not 1929, Either,” The Washington Post, Outlook Section, Sunday, September 6, 1998.
Book Review, “The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy,” by Michael Hunt, for The Annals of Academy of Political and Social Science, September 1998.
“Wilsonianism Reconsidered,” Orbis, Fall 1997.
Francis J. Gavin 