As mentioned earlier - Tom Ricks - the special military correspondent for The Washington Post and author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq - is writing a blog for Foreign Policy (Passport) called The Best Defense. From SWJ friend Tom:
This is the first day this blog has been live. As you can see from the last couple of weeks of postings, I aim to offer commentary and news on national security and related issues. I appreciate tips and feedback, especially when it is civil.
That's only part of today's news on Tom - the Center for a New American Security announced that he has joined CNAS as a Senior Fellow.
Prior to becoming a Senior Fellow, Ricks was affiliated with CNAS as a Senior Writer in Residence, at which time he completed his new book, The Gamble: General Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-08, published on February 10, 2009 by The Penguin Press. In The Gamble, Ricks documents the inside story of the Iraq war from 2006 through 2008. Using hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reporting, Ricks -- working in the tradition of his highly lauded Fiasco -- examines the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.
You can read more on the new Foreign Policy here - and along with the new "look" they have added other first-rate writers to their lineup at Passport.
Harvard's Stephen Walt, coauthor of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, will inject a dose of realism into the online political debate. Superclass author David Rothkopf will give readers an inside look at the global powerbrokers who really run the world. FP senior editor Carolyn O'Hara and a crack team of Clinton-watchers will be obsessively following all things Hillary at Madam Secretary. And a coterie of conservative foreign-policy heavyweights, including Peter Feaver, Philip Zelikow, and FP's newest editor -- and Condoleeza Rice's longtime speechwriter -- Christian Brose, will be on hand to critique the Obama presidency at Shadow Government: Notes from the loyal opposition.
Some blogging veterans are also adding their names to our digital masthead. Daniel Drezner's readers already know that he has brought his must-read blog on foreign policy, international economics (and occasionally the Red Sox) over to FP. Marc Lynch's essential Middle East politics blog Abu Aardvark has also come aboard. And investigative journalist Laura Rozen will be writing The Cable, featuring original coverage, scoops, and behind-the-scenes reporting about the making of Washington's foreign policy in the age of Obama.
We'll also feature partnerships with the Small Wars Journal and a new column, The Call, with political forecasting by Ian Bremmer and the political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group.
Robert Haddick will write the SWJ-FP feature, adding that to his writings at Westhawk, The American, and elsewhere.