Eliot A. Cohen
Cohen is the author of Supreme Command, Conquered Into Liberty, The Big Stick, and other works on military history and national-security policy. He created the strategic-studies program at Johns Hopkins SAIS and served as the school’s ninth dean. He has also served as the counselor of the Department of State and in other positions in the U.S. Department of Defense and the intelligence community. His next book, Rough Magic, is a study of Shakespeare’s treatment of the acquisition, use, and loss of political power.
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Ben Brody ‘How Does One Process Defeat?’
A letter to a civilian who deployed to Afghanistan
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Seamus Murphy / VII / Redux Exit Strategy
There will be no power-sharing, no reconciliation, no peace of the brave.
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Jon Cherry / Getty / The Atlantic These Old Evils Require Old Remedies
The machinery of justice should be relentless and thorough.
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Stan Grossfeld / The Boston Globe / Getty Don’t Despair
Americans are equal to this moment.
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Getty / The Atlantic Trump’s Enablers Will Meet Their Shakespearean Ends
The Bard had a rich sense of the creeps and criminals, sycophants and slimeballs, weirdos and wing nuts who hang around power.
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Brendan Smialowski / Getty This Is No Job for a General
President-elect Joe Biden should choose a civilian to lead his Department of Defense.
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Getty / The Atlantic Trump the Genius, Trump the Incompetent, Trump the Bogeyman
A character study of the 45th president
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Netflix The Great British Baking Show and the Meaning of Life
In these fraught times, I like to seek refuge in the idyllic England of my dreams—one that still exists in The Great British Baking Show.
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Brendan Smialowski / Hulton Archive / Getty / … The Feckless King
The president’s fall has come, and it has a Shakespearean flavor.
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The Atlantic Go Memorize a Poem
In times of crisis, learning and reciting poetry can act as a balm.
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Anthia Cumming / Getty A Tale of Two Letters
Speaking the truth, laying down a marker, drawing a line are valuable in ways that you can never fully anticipate.
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Getty / The Atlantic A Profoundly Unserious Way of Dealing With the Past
As statues topple across the country, Americans need to distinguish between the problematic or objectionable and the irredeemably wrong.
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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters America’s Generals Must Stand Up to Trump
Our military leaders are willing to take a bullet for this country. But are they prepared to take a pink slip?
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Noam Galai / Getty We’re Discovering Our Character
The pandemic is reshaping how we understand ourselves and our world.
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Jose A. Bernat Bacete / Getty Our Plague Year
We must heed the logic of rationality and science—but also the logic captured by artists, poets, and storytellers.
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Jacquelyn Martin / AP In the Long Run, Romney Wins
The senator from Utah’s speech was the stuff of American myth.
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Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Trump Is Playing Chess One Turn at a Time
An impulsive president tries to look tough without being prepared to follow through.
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Yuri Gripas / Reuters He’s No King David
Some of the president’s supporters have taken to comparing him to the biblical monarch.
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Brendan Smialowski / Getty The Line Must Hold
Every society must make clear what it expects of its armed servants.
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Mandel Ngan / Getty Trump’s Character Betrays Him
In foreign policy, reputation means everything.
