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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
![Secretary of State Mike Pompeo & Vice President Mike Pence in Turkey, October 17, 2019. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/48919135551/">The White House/D. Myles Cullen/Public Domain</a>](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/PenceTurkey_2023-04-10-045108_zbwp.jpg?v=1721251481)
OCT 18, 2019 • Article
A Russian Take on the Kurds and U.S. Foreign Policy
A Russian defense news site declared the United States an "unreliable ally" after the withdrawal of American troops from Northern Syria. Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev ...
![U.S. servicemembers load humanitarian relief supplies for victims of Cyclone Nargis. Yokota Air Base, Japan, 2008. CREDIT: <a href=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:080512-F-1590C-553_Loading_relief_supplies_at_U-Tapao.jpg>U.S. Air Force (CC)</a>.](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/USAID2_featurebox_2023-04-10-045115_chis.jpg?v=1721238352)
SEP 20, 2019 • Article
Need for a New Consensus
Foreign policy experts are having difficulty linking the negative implications of a shift towards trasactionalism for U.S. foreign aid to voters. This begs the ...
![Khurais Oil Processing Facility in Saudi Arabia, February 2017. CREDIT: <a href=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Khurais_Oil_Processing_Facility,_Saudi_Arabia_by_Planet_Labs.jpg>Planet Labs, Inc. (CC)</a>.](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/oilfield_featurebox_2023-04-10-045118_wjyx.jpg?v=1721240788)
SEP 18, 2019 • Article
Candidates, Calculus, and the Iran Crisis
In choosing whether and how to respond to the attack on Saudi Arabian oil refineries, what is the calculus for determining action? Should the United ...
![Protest against U.S. military attacks in Syria, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 2017. CREDIT: <a href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/fibonacciblue/33878190156/in/album-72157682265455706/>Fibonacci Blue (CC)</a>.](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/warprotest_featurebox_2023-04-10-045121_olya.jpg?v=1721240790)
SEP 17, 2019 • Article
The Narrative IS Changing . . .
The narrative about America's role in the world is changing--and more evidence is accumulating that suggests that no matter how the 2020 presidential and congressional elections ...
![President Trump at the 2017 UN General Assembly. CREDIT: <a href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/37501289212/>UN Photo/Ariana Lindquist (CC)</a>.](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/trumpforeignaid_featurebox_2023-04-10-045127_nhtz.jpg?v=1721240452)
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 ...
![Families partake in a climate emergency protest in Melbourne, Australia. CREDIT: <A href=https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/3622617318/>Takver (CC)</a>.](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/eiaclimate_featurebox_2023-04-10-045130_nzii.jpg?v=1721244941)
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 ...
![(L to R) Former Uzbeki President Islam Karimov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 2016. CREDIT: <a href=http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/52257>kremlin.ru (CC)</a>](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/uzbekchinarussia2_featurebox_2023-04-10-045133_vnlr.jpg?v=1721244943)
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 ...
![Joe Biden in Iowa, July 2019. CREDIT: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joe_Biden_with_supporters_-_48243819806.jpg">Gage Skidmore/(CC)</a>](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/import/studio/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/BidenCampaign.jpg?v=1721244714)
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 ...
![President Trump departing China, November 2017. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/26541431789">The White House/Public Domain</a>](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/import/studio/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/TrumpChina.jpg?v=1721238359)
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 ...
![President Donald J. Trump and President Xi Jinping hold a bilateral meeting in Beijing on November 9, 2017. CREDIT: <a href=https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/more-photos-foreign-trip/>The White House (CC)</a>.](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/cceia/_1000x650_crop_center-center_none_ns/trumptradewar_featurebox_2023-04-10-045136_wzsm.jpg?v=1721238360)
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 ...