Author Q&A: Joshua Kurlantzick, "A Great Place to Have a War"

By Joshua Kurlantzick

Joshua Kurlantzick is senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. Kurlantzick was previously a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he studied Southeast Asian politics and economics and China's relations with Southeast Asia, including Chinese investment, aid, and diplomacy. Previously, he was a fellow at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy and a fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy. Kurlantzick has also served as a columnist for Time, a correspondent for the Economistbased in Bangkok, a special correspondent for the New Republic, a senior correspondent for the American Prospect, and a contributing writer for Mother Jones. He also serves on the editorial board of Current History. He is the winner of the Luce Scholarship for journalism in Asia and was selected as a finalist for the Osborn Elliot prize for journalism in Asia. His first book, "Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World," was nominated for CFR's 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award. He is the author of "Democracy in Retreat: The Revolt of the Middle Class and the Worldwide Decline in Representative Government," and the author of the forthcoming "A Great Place to Have a War: The Secret War in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA." Kurlantzick received his BA in political science from Haverford College.