Over the last decade I have been seeking new ways to understand the historical origins of contemporary world politics. My new book, Fatal Misconception, is the first global history of a movement that sought to remake humanity— seemingly with the best of intentions — but succeeded in causing untold suffering. Wealthy foundations, foreign aid agencies, and the United Nations made “family planning” a means to plan other people’s families. Beginning with eugenics, the temptation to breed better people culminated in the sterilization camps of India and the horrors of China’s one-child policy. This history, based on research in over fifty archives in seven countries, serves as a warning against what may be the even more dangerous experiments of the future, including coercive pro-natalism and genetic “enhancement.”

My first book, A Diplomatic Revolution, described how rebels can harness their cause to global trends to isolate and defeat an empire. It happened a half century ago, at the height of the Cold War, when Algerian nationalists mobilized Muslim immigrants in France and across Europe, staged urban terror to attract the international media, and finally won over the U.N. without ever liberating national territory. Rewriting the rules of international relations, they inspired revolutionaries worldwide, including the ANC and the PLO. It is also a textbook case of how a counter-insurgency campaign can win all the battles and still lose the war.

In addition to publishing in academic journals in the U.S. and Europe, I have written articles articles on foreign policy for The Atlantic Monthly, The Wilson Quarterly, and The National Interest and commented on current affairs for the media, including The New York Times and The History Channel.

Most scholars, trained to write national histories, assume that the challenges posed by ethnic conflict, transnational movements, and environmental change mark the start of a new era. In fact, recent events merely revealed deeper continuities with the more distant past, though to see them requires a more international and global perspective. I have therefore been working to build a program to promote these new approaches, including a dual masters degree with the LSE, and a book series co-edited with Adam McKeown for Columbia University Press. My courses at Columbia include International and Global History since World War II, The End of Empires, and The Future as History.

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