Max Boot Joins the Council as Senior Fellow in National Security Studies

Contact: Lisa Shields, Director of Communications, 212-434-9888

New York, October 4, 2002 — Max Boot, former Wall Street Journal editorial features editor, has joined the Council on Foreign Relations as a senior fellow in national security studies. Boot is the author of The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power (Basic Books, 2002), hailed as "the book of the season" (National Journal) and "’must’ reading in Congress, the Pentagon and among Washington’s columnists and think-tankers" (Business Times).

At the Council, Boot will be working on his next book, a study of military technology revolutions over the past 500 years. He will also examine a wide variety of issues relating to U.S. foreign policy, security policy, and the war on terrorism.

“Having Max with us will add immeasurably to the Council’s work, and his skills as a writer will add much needed context and clarity to the increasingly urgent debate on national security,” said Council President Leslie H. Gelb.

Before joining the Council, Boot spent eight years as a writer and editor at the Wall Street Journal, the last five years as editorial features editor. From 1992 to 1994 he was an editor and writer at the Christian Science Monitor.

Boot’s writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, the National Interest, the Weekly Standard, and many other publications. Boot is a frequent public speaker who has addressed institutions ranging from the Naval War College to the American Bar Association to Princeton University. He has also appeared on CNN, Fox News Channel, CNBC, ABC, National Public Radio, and numerous other television and radio outlets.

Boot holds a bachelor’s degree in history, with high honors, from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in diplomatic history from Yale University. Boot lives with his wife and three children in Larchmont, N.Y.