David Unger

Expertise

Regions

• United States

Topics

• American Foreign Policy
• Strategic and Security Issues

Languages

• French
• Italian
• Spanish

Background and Education

Research Associate, SOAS, University of London. David C. Unger is a journalist and former foreign affairs editorial writer for The New York Times (1977-2013). He is a Research Associate at SOAS, University of London and US contributing editor and book reviewer for Survival, the journal of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, University of London. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Foreign Policy Roundtable, New York (1997-2007). Unger received an AB in History and Comparative Literature from Cornell University, a PhD from the University of Texas, Austin and has done additional graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Institute for Historical Research, University of London.

Publications

"Origins of the National Security State and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman," in Truman Legacy Series, Vol. 11 (2015); The Emergency State: How to End America's Obsessive Quest for National Security and Reclaim our Democracy, Penguin Press (February 16, 2012); "Un americano amico dell'Europa," in Il giorno in cui ci svegliammo dal sogno (2013).

Articles:

Review of The Foundation of the CIA: Harry Truman, The Missouri Gang and the Origins of the Cold War, by Richard E. Schroeder, in Missouri Historical Review (April 2018); "America First or America Alone?" in Aspenia Online (February 2017); "Reflections on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election," in Serbian, Political Thought (December 2016 ); "The Foreign Policy Legacy of Barack Obama," in International Spectator (October 2016); "Updating the Emergency State," in SAIS Europe Journal of Global Affairs (2015); "The U.N.'s Lost Decade," in Croatia UNA Magazine (2012); "A Better Internationalism," in World Policy Journal (Spring 2012); "Economic Leadership in Europe," in Bologna Center Journal of International Affairs (2011); "The Inevitable Two State Solution," in World Policy Journal (Fall 2008); "Maps of War, Maps of Peace: Finding a Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Question," in World Policy Journal (Summer 2002); "Asian Anxieties, Pacific Overtures: Experiments in Security for a New Asia-Pacific Community," in World Policy Journal (Summer 1994); more than 3,000 foreign policy editorials published in The New York Times since 1977.

Selected Presentations:

The US-Italy relationship in a Changing World, panel sponsored by Istituto Affair Internazionale and US Embassy, Rome, May 2018; America First, Political and Cultural Nationalism in the US, Centro di Studi Americani e Transatlantici P. Bairati, Universita di Torino, December 2017; How the National Security Act of 1947 built the foundations for a peacetime national security state (panel), American Historical Association, Denver, USA, Jan. 7, 2017; Post US Presidential Elections – The foreign policy debate (panel), JHU SAIS Europe Bologna, Italy, Dec. 5, 2016; The Election of Donald Trump: What does It mean for Europe, the world, and the United States? Faculty of Political Science, University of Cagliari, Italy, Nov. 22, 2016; The Election of Donald Trump: What does it Mean for Europe, the world, and the United States? University of Sassari, Italy Nov. 21, 2016; The next US President and Foreign Policy, general audience, SOAS, London, UK, Nov. 15, 2016; The next US President and Foreign Policy, MA students, SOAS, London, UK Nov. 14, 2016; US Presidential Election and the Obama Legacy, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy, Nov. 8, 2016; US Strategic and security policies, University of Viterbo, Italy, Nov. 7, 2016; US Foreign Policy after the presidential elections, at regional seminar of political scientists, Kopaonik, Serbia, Nov. 5, 2016; Toward the 2016 Election (panel), JHU SAIS Europe, Bologna, Italy, Oct. 26, 2016; The Obama Legacy in Foreign Policy (panel), ISPI (Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale), Milan, Italy, Oct. 10, 2016; The Politics, and Political Legacy of Harry S. Truman’s National Security Policies, Harry S. Truman Library Conference, Key West, USA, May 2013; The Emergency State, Seattle, USA, Feb. 2012; The Emergency State, World Affairs Council of Northern California, San Francisco, USA, Feb. 2012; The Emergency State, Carnegie Council, New York, USA, Feb. 2012; The Emergency State, World Policy Institute, New York, USA, Feb. 2012; Obama and U.S. Foreign Policy, SOAS, London, UK, Nov. 2008.