Zach Dorfman

Former Senior Fellow, Ethics, Technology, and U.S. Foreign Policy and Fellow, "The Living Legacy of the First World War"

Zach Dorfman is a national security reporter and former Carnegie Council Senior Fellow.

His work has appeared in Politico, The Atlantic, Atavist Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, and The Nation, among other publications.

He was one of the winners of the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting in 2018.

Previously, he was a full-time senior editor at Ethics & International Affairs, the quarterly journal of the Carnegie Council, where he commissioned features, essays, and reviews on issues of war and peace, the environment, international institutions, foreign policy, and more.

Featured Work

L to R: Reed Bonadonna, Mary Barton, Philip Caruso, Zach Dorfman, Richard Millet at the Peace Palace, The Hague, Netherlands, Sept. 25, 2018. <br>CREDIT: Billy Pickett

NOV 7, 2018 Transcript

Education for Peace: The Living Legacy of the First World War

Four Fellows from Carnegie Council's "The Living Legacy of WWI" project present their research on different aspects of the war--counterterrorism, airpower, chemical warfare, and Latin ...

San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade, 2017. CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/34186459@N00/32752340391">--Mark--</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">(CC)</a>

SEP 11, 2018 Podcast

China's Spies in California with Zach Dorfman

"There is a significant counterintelligence threat on the West Coast of the U.S., and it differs in meaningful ways from what is commonly perceived ...

CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dak1b/4970045694/sizes/l">Ryan Anderson</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC</a>)

AUG 7, 2018 Article

The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Chemical Weapons

"Chemical weapons have been used in almost every decade since their advent just over a century ago. They are not a specter, like nuclear weapons. ...

Indian infantry (58th Rifles) in Fauquissart, France, August 1915. CREDIT: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_infantry_in_the_trenches,_prepared_against_a_gas_attack_(Photo_24-300).jpg">H. D. Girdwood/British Library/Public Domain</a>

MAY 1, 2018 Podcast

The Living Legacy of WWI: Chemical Weapons from the Great War to Syria, with Zach Dorfman

"What you stopped seeing after World War I was great power conflict involving chemical weapons, and what you started seeing was asymmetric conflicts or regional ...

Declassified FBI report: "Our confidential source ascertained (...) that the bombing of the Cubana Airlines DC-8 was planned, in part, in Caracas, Venezuela, at two meetings attended by Morales Navarrete, Luis Posada Carriles and Frank Castro." <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB202/19761105.pdf"> U.S. Government doc</a>, public domain.

JAN 16, 2018 Article

A Tangled Embrace: What the JFK Papers Tell Us about the CIA's Anti-Castro Cuban Agents

In 1976, Cubana Flight 455 was brought down by a terrorist bomb. All 72 people aboard perished. Anti-Castro terrorist and longtime CIA asset Luis Posada is widely considered ...

CREDIT: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1mXeLHR8Ao">The LBJ Library</a>

MAR 28, 2017 Article

President Trump's Dangerous Foreign Policy Know-Nothingism and the Lessons of Nixon and Kennedy

Kennedy kept his cool. Nixon fell to pieces. How will Trump behave under stress--a president who not only lacks a coherent theory of statecraft or ...

Orlando Letelier, Washington D.C., 1976. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orlando_Letelier,_Washingron_DC,_1976_(de_Marcelo_Montecino).jpg">Wikimedia</a>

JUL 19, 2016 Article

Codename: Chilbom

On a fall morning in 1976, a bomb exploded in the middle of Washington. The shock waves were felt for the next 30 years.

U.S. Army in Baghdad, November 2003. CREDIT: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War#/media/File:UStanks_baghdad_2003.JPEG">Technical Sergeant John L. Houghton, Jr., USAF</a>

JUN 15, 2016 Article

The Progressive's Paradox

Can left-wing ideologies ever co-exist comfortably with military intervention? U.S. foreign policy over the past two decades has failed to align squarely with the ...

SEP 17, 2015 Podcast

Introduction to "Ethics & International Affairs," Fall 2015

In this podcast, Senior Editor Zach Dorfman discusses the journal's fall issue. Topics discussed include global standards for international judges; ethical consumption and individual obligations; ...

JUL 24, 2015 Podcast

A Conversation on Climate Change with Conservation International's M. Sanjayan

In late June, "Ethics & International Affairs" senior editor Zach Dorfman sat down with M. Sanjayan, senior scientist at Conservation International, at the Aspen Ideas Festival ...