ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to those who agreed to be interviewed for this book and also to those who helped make those interviews happen.

David Sterman and Melissa Salyk-Virk are stellar colleagues who worked on all phases of the book, performing and organizing research and overseeing the fact checking. Catherine York, Daiva Scovil, John Luebke, Wesley Jefferies, Ian Wallace, Sumaita Mulk, Robin Bradley, Alyssa Sims, Albert Ford, and Chris Mellon all also helped.

All these very smart people work or have worked at New America, which has been my home for almost two decades. I am lucky to work there with Anne-Marie Slaughter, Awista Ayub, Paul Butler, Kevin Carey, Cecilia Muñoz, Yuliya Panfil, Peter Singer, Heather Hurlburt, Doug Ollivant, Shaena Korby, Barry Howard, Cathy Bryan, Dana Ju, Ariam Mohamed, Joanne Zalatoris, Alison Yost, Tanya Manning, Jewel Stafford, Angela Spidalette, Jason Stewart, all of whom make New America such a congenial place to work. Thanks also to the former president of New America, Steve Coll.

Thanks to Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University (ASU), who hired me as a professor, and to Jim O’Brien, ASU senior vice president and chief of staff. It has been a pleasure to launch under their guidance the Center on the Future of War, which is now in its sixth year. Thanks also at ASU to Magda Hinojosa, Pat Kenney, Candace Rondeaux, Nick Rasmussen, Elizabeth Wentz, Stefanie Lindquist, Jonathan Kinkel, and Jeffrey Kubiak.

A great deal of thanks is owed to my partner in the Future of War project, Daniel Rothenberg, who is simply the ideal colleague, very smart, well organized, and thoughtful. Daniel read the manuscript of this book carefully and his observations have improved it. Richard Galant, managing editor at CNN.com, is one of the best editors in the business; he unfailingly identifies the weaknesses in a story, and he does so in a manner that doesn’t make you feel like a fool. A number of themes and stories in this book were first developed under Rich’s guidance. Rich generously read and commented on the manuscript while on vacation. (A busman’s holiday!) Ken Ballen has provided valuable feedback on several of my books, including this one.

I have worked at CNN in one capacity or another for three decades, and am grateful to continue to work there today with so many of its excellent anchors, reporters, executives, and producers. In particular: Wolf Blitzer, Amy Entelis, Fareed Zakaria, Brian Todd, Dugald McConnell, Jay Shaylor, Jim Sciutto, Charlie Moore, Anderson Cooper, Kerry Rubin, Kari Pricher, Susan Chun, Poppy Harlow, Rebecca Kutler, Michael Smerconish, Rick Davis, Pat Wiedenkeller, Yaffa Frederick, Jamie Crawford, Adam Levine, Debbie Berger, Sam Feist, Courtney Sexton, Jon Adler, Jennifer Dargan, John King, Jessica Metzger, and Brianna Keilar. Jeff Zucker has turned CNN into the powerhouse it is today; Anderson rightly observed that he is “the first CNN president to actually watch CNN.”

Thanks also to the advisory council for New America’s International Security Program, particularly Tom Freston and Bob Niehaus. And thanks to Kati Marton and David and Katherine Bradley. Thanks also to the foundations and program officers who have supported our work, especially Marin Strmecki of the Smith Richardson Foundation, Lisa Magarrell at the Open Society Foundation, and Hillary Wiesner at Carnegie.

Thanks to Greg Barker for the work we have done together making several films about America’s long post-9/11 wars. And thanks to Vinnie Malhotra at Showtime, Banks Tarver of Left/Right, Russ Smith, and John Battsek. Thanks to Matt Jones and Rainey Foster of Leading Authorities and to Clark Forcey for your help over the years. Thanks also to Jennie Malloy, Igor Aronov, and Aleksander Ferguson. Thanks to Bruce Hoffman for involving me in the scholarly journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. Thanks for your friendship to Karen Greenberg, Meena and Liaquat Ahamed, Chris and Holly Fussell, Joel Rayburn and Clare Lockhart, Henry and Sandra Schuster, Tom Carver and Katty Kay, Gavin and Odile Wilson, Kate Boo and Sunil Khilnani, Gianni Koskinas, Rachel Klayman, Josh Geltzer and Katherine Boone, Elizabeth Campbell and Nabil Mohamad, Mark Isaksen and Daniel Walth, Sid and Jackie Blumenthal, Jim Sciutto and Gloria Riviera, and Thomas and Holly Espy.

Thanks to my fellow board members at the James Foley Foundation and Diane Foley and to my fellow board members at the Global Special Operations Foundation and to Stu Bradin and Meaghan Keeler-Pettigrew. The work of these foundations intersects with many of the themes of this book.

Tina Bennett of WME is widely and justly regarded as the best nonfiction agent in the business, and I consider myself very lucky to have been one of her authors for the past two decades. Also at WME, many thanks to Henry Reisch for his wise counsel and support, and thanks also to Bradley Singer and Eric Simonoff.

At Penguin this book was very ably shepherded by assistant editor, Mia Council, and well publicized by Liz Calamari. Thanks to Yuki Hirose for the legal review and also to Susan VanHecke for the very helpful copyedit. Thanks to Darren Haggar for the striking book cover and Lucia Bernard for the handsome interior design of the book. I had the good fortune to have Scott Moyers as the editor of this book who was simply a joy to work with. Scott had a multitude of smart ideas about the overall structure and direction of the book.

Above all, thanks to my wife, Tresha Mabile. Books can take a toll on families; the missed vacations and weekends start to add up, and I hope that we can make up some of that time. Tresha is the most wonderful wife, mother, and work partner, and it is to her and to our son, Pierre, and our daughter, Grace, that this book is dedicated. Thanks also to our families. Pierre, age seven, took a strong interest in the progress of this book. “What page are you on?” he asked me every morning. Pierre thought the cover of the book should show President Trump holding an AK-47 surrounded by soldiers with RPGs. We didn’t go that route in the end, but when Pierre and Grace are old enough to read this book, I hope they will realize that the reason Daddy spent so much time at his desk was because he was writing about a consequential American president and the generals and officials who served under him, and the world they made.