Nikolas K. Gvosdev

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

Nikolas K. Gvosdev was 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

Senator Bernie Sanders at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco. CREDIT: <a href="https://flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/48023053593/">Gage Skidmore</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(CC)</a>

JAN 24, 2020 Article

The Democratic Debate and Competing Narratives

As the Democratic field of presidential candidates narrows, the contenders are beginning to devote more attention to foreign policy and Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev has ...

American and Floridian flags wave in Viera, FL. CREDIT: <a href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/rusty_clark/32170527104/>Rusty Clark (CC)</a>.

JAN 23, 2020 Article

Foreign Policy Narratives in Palm Beach

After an invitation to speak at a gathering of the Palm Beach chapter of the United Nations Association of the United States, U.S. Global ...

President Trump delivers remarks on Jan. 8, 2020 at the White House. <a href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/49351700228/>Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian/Public Domain</a>.

JAN 13, 2020 Article

A Parting of Values: America First versus Transactionalism

"The existing divide in American foreign policy discourse has been the extent to which the U.S. must actively propagate and spread its values, or ...

President Trump delivers remarks on Jan. 8, 2020 at the White House. <a href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/49351700228/>Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian/Public Domain</a>.

JAN 6, 2020 Article

Soleimani and the Democratic Primary Electorate

In the aftermath of the U.S. drone strike on the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, General Qassem Soleimani, senior fellow Nikolas Gvosdev ...

The Loisach Group at the Munich Security Conference 2018. CREDIT: <a href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/gcmcphotos/39670939834/>George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (CC)</a>

DEC 11, 2019 Article

Loisach Group and the Democratic Community Narrative

Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev reports from the Berlin meetings of the Losiach Group, a U.S.-German strategic dialogue, where the trans-Atlantic relationship and the ...

President Trump in Afghanistan, November 2019. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/49158949848/in/photostream/"> Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead/Public Domain</a>

DEC 10, 2019 Article

Vox Populi, Eurasia Group Foundation, and Narratives

The Eurasia Group Foundation (EGF) has released its report on public attitudes towards U.S. foreign policy. Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev notes that, like the ...

President Trump in the Oval Office on Christmas Day, 2018. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/32629901988">Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead/Public Domain</a>

NOV 22, 2019 Article

Trump is the Symptom, Not the Problem

Astute observers of U.S. foreign policy have been making the case, as we move into the 2020 elections, not to see the interruptions in the ...

CREDIT: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Capitol_Building_at_night_Jan_2006.jpg">Diliff (CC)</a>

NOV 8, 2019 Article

A Washington Insider Take on the Narratives

Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev follows up on his recent report on U.S. Global Engagement, "The Search for a New Narrative: Recasting American ...

Senator Elizabeth Warren in Iowa, June 2019. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number7cloud/48037984057/">Lorie Shaull</a> <a href'="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/"(CC)</a>

OCT 30, 2019 Article

Crafting Narratives and the 2020 Elections

As the recent U.S. Global Engagement report notes, there is no longer one main narrative for U.S. foreign policy. Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev ...

President Donald Trump at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, September 2019. CREDIT: <a href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/48791288231/>The White House (CC)</a>.

OCT 25, 2019 Article

The Search for a New Narrative: Recasting American Involvement in the International System

This project on U.S. Global Engagement was launched in 2018. An initial report, released in December 2018, diagnosed the causes and symptoms of the narrative collapse ...