Max Alexandrovich Boot (born September 12, 1969) is an American author,

consultant A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servi ...

, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian. He worked as a writer and editor for '' Christian Science Monitor'' and then for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' in the 1990s. Since then, he has been the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...

and a contributor to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

''. He has also written for numerous publications such as ''

The Weekly Standard ''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis and commentary, published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' had been described as a "r ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and he has authored books of military history.Max Boot
.

. Accessed March 1, 2009. In 2018, Boot published ''The Road Not Taken'', a biography of Edward Lansdale, and ''The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right'', which details Boot's "ideological journey from a 'movement' conservative to a man without a party", in the aftermath of the

2016 U.S. presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial United States presidential election, presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican Party (United States), Republican ticket of businessman Donald ...

Personal life

Boot was born in Moscow. His parents and grandmother, all Russian-Jews, fled from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in 1976 as refugees and moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, where he was raised and eventually gained naturalized U.S. citizenship. Boot attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

where he graduated with honors with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

in 1991 and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

with an MA in Diplomatic History in 1992. He began his career in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

writing columns for the Berkeley student newspaper '' The Daily Californian''. He later claimed that he believes he is the only conservative writer in that paper's history. , Boot and his family lived in the New York area.

Career

Boot has been the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the

(CFR), a contributing editor to ''

'' and the ''

'', and a regular contributor to other publications such as ''

'', ''

'' and ''

''. He has

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ged regularly for '' Commentary'' since 2007, and for several years on its blog page called ''Contentions''. He has given lectures at U.S. military institutions such as the Army War College and the Command and General Staff College. Boot worked as a writer and as an editor for ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' from 1992 to 1994. He moved to ''The Wall Street Journal'' for the next eight years. After writing an investigative column about legal issues called "Rule of Law" for four years, he was promoted to editor of the op-ed page. Boot left the ''Journal'' in 2002 to join the

as a Senior Fellow in National Security Studies. His initial writings with the CFR appeared in several publications, including '' The New York Post'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'', ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

'', and '' International Herald Tribune''. Boot wrote ''Savage Wars of Peace'', a study of small wars in American history, with Basic Books in 2002. The title came from Kipling's poem " White Man's Burden". James A. Russell in '' Journal of Cold War Studies'' criticized the book, saying that "Boot did none of the critical research, and thus the inferences he draws from his uncritical rendition of history are essentially meaningless." Benjamin Schwarz argued in ''The New York Times'' that Boot asked the U.S. military to do a "nearly impossible task", and he criticized the book as "unrevealing"."The Post-Powell Doctrine"
By Benjamin Schwarz. ''The New York Times''. Published July 21, 2002. Retrieved August 22, 2009. Victor Davis Hanson in History News Network gave a positive review, saying that "Boot's well-written narrative is not only fascinating reading, but didactic as well". Robert M. Cassidy in '' Military Review'' labeled it "extraordinary". Boot's book also won the 2003 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation as the best non-fiction book recently published pertaining to Marine Corps history. Boot wrote once again for the CFR in 2003 and 2004. The World Affairs Councils of America named Boot one of "the 500 most influential people in the United States in the field of foreign policy" in 2004. He also worked as member of the

Project for the New American Century The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was a neoconservativeJosiah Bunting III in ''The New York Times'', who called it "unusual and magisterial", and criticism from

Martin Sieff Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Aus ...

in '' The American Conservative'', who called it "remarkably superficial". Boot wrote many more articles with the CFR in 2007, and he received the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism that year. In an April 2007 episode of '' Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg'', Boot stated that he "used to be a journalist" and that he currently views himself purely as a military historian."America, Quo Vadis?" Part 1
'' Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg''. Originally broadcast April 12, 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2009. Boot served as a foreign policy adviser to

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

John McCain in his 2008 United States presidential election bid. He stated in an editorial in ''World Affairs Journal'' that he saw strong parallels between

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

and McCain.Max Boot – Publications – 2008
Council of Foreign Relations. Accessed August 30, 2009. Boot continued to write for the CFR in several publications in 2008 and 2009. Current Strategy Forum 100608-N-9923C-222 (4682746513)

Current Strategy Forum 100608-N-9923C-222 (4682746513)

Boot wrote for the CFR through 2010 and 2011 for publications such as ''Newsweek'', ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', ''The New York Times'' and ''The Weekly Standard''. He particularly argued that President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

's health care plans made maintaining U.S. superpower status harder, that withdrawal of U.S. troops from

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

occurred prematurely while making another war there more likely, and that the initial U.S. victory in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

had been undone by government complacency though forces could still pull off a victory. He also wrote op-eds criticizing planned budget austerity measures in both the U.S. and the U.K. as hurting their national security interests. In September 2012, Boot co-wrote with

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

senior fellow Michael Doran a ''New York Times'' op-ed titled "5 Reasons to Intervene in Syria Now", advocating U.S military force to create a countrywide no-fly zone reminiscent of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

's role in the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the w ...

. He stated first and second that "American intervention would diminish Iran's influence in the Arab world" and that "a more muscular American policy could keep the conflict from spreading" with "sectarian strife in Lebanon and Iraq". Third, Boot argued that "training and equipping reliable partners within Syria's internal opposition" could help "create a bulwark against extremist groups like Al Qaeda". He concluded that "American leadership on Syria could improve relations with key allies like Turkey and Qatar" as well as "end a terrible human-rights disaster". Another well received book by Boot, titled ''Invisible Armies'' (2013), is about the history of

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run ...

, analyzing various cases of successful and unsuccessful insurgent efforts such as the fighting during the American war of independence, the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, and the current Syrian Civil War. He states that traditional, conventional army tactics as employed by the American military under the administrations of President Bush and

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

against guerrilla organizations have produced strategic failures. Boot has discussed his book in various programs such as the Hoover Institution's '' Uncommon Knowledge'' series, appearing on it in January 2014.

Political beliefs

In general, Boot considers himself to be a "natural

contrarian A contrarian is a person who holds a contrary position, especially a position against the majority. Investing A contrarian investing style is based on identifying, and speculating against, movements in stock prices that reflect changes in t ...

". He identifies as a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

, once joking that "I grew up in the 1980s, when conservatism was cool". He is in favor of limited government at home and American leadership abroad. Boot was one of the earliest proponents of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. In October 2001, in an article titled "The Case for American Empire", he proposed that the USA must greatly increase its military engagement against other countries and compared his proposal to invade Afghanistan and

with the American role in defeating

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. He wrote:

Once Afghanistan has been dealt with, America should turn its attention to Iraq ... Once we have deposed Saddam, we can impose an American-led, international regency in Baghdad, to go along with the one in Kabul ... It is a matter of self defense: addamis currently working to acquire weapons of mass destruction that he or his confederates will unleash against America ... To turn Iraq into a beacon of hope for the oppressed peoples of the Middle East ... This could be the chance to right the scales, to establish the first Arab democracy, and to show the Arab people that America is committed to freedom for them.

Boot is a strong supporter of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and opposed the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the occupied

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. He wrote in 2008 that "the reason Israelis aren't dismantling the settlements (and that President Bush isn't pressing them to do so) has nothing to do with the views of American Jewish groups and everything to do with the dismal record of recent Israeli concessions in southern Lebanon and the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza. ...

. In both cases (as well as at the Camp David negotiations in 2000) Israelis thought that territorial concessions would lead to peace. Instead they led to the empowerment of terrorists." In 2011, Boot supported the

-led military intervention in Libya. In 2015 and 2016, Boot was a campaign advisor to

Marco Rubio Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Speaker of the Florida House ...

for the 2016 United States presidential primaries and strongly opposed Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy. Boot said in March 2016 that he would "sooner vote for Josef Stalin than he would vote for Donald Trump". In August 2016, after Trump won the nomination, he became highly critical of the Republican Party and endorsed Democratic candidate

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...

in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Boot was critical of the nomination of Rex Tillerson to the position of Secretary of State, believing him to be problematically pro-Russian, and subsequently called on Tillerson to resign. In an opinion piece for ''

Foreign Policy A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...

'' in September 2017, Max Boot outlined his political views as follows: "I am socially liberal: I am pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-abortion rights, pro-immigration. I am fiscally conservative: I think we need to reduce the deficit and get entitlement spending under control. I am pro-environment: I think that climate change is a major threat that we need to address. I am pro-free trade: I think we should be concluding new trade treaties rather than pulling out of old ones. I am strong on defense: I think we need to beef up our military to cope with multiple enemies. And I am very much in favor of America acting as a world leader: I believe it is in our own self-interest to promote and defend freedom and free markets as we have been doing in one form or another since at least 1898." In December 2017, also in ''Foreign Policy'', Boot wrote that recent events—particularly since the 2016 election of Donald Trump as president—had caused him to rethink some of his previous views concerning the existence of white privilege and male privilege. "In the last few years, in particular, it has become impossible for me to deny the reality of discrimination, harassment, even violence that people of color and women continue to experience in modern-day America from a power structure that remains for the most part in the hands of straight, white males. People like me, in other words. Whether I realize it or not, I have benefited from my skin color and my gender—and those of a different gender or sexuality or skin color have suffered because of it." In March 2019, Boot proposed to retire the neoconservative label, saying that the term "neocon thinking" is falsely associated with the advocacy of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq:

The misuse of the "neocon" label reached an absurd extreme in a Post op-ed by Rep.
Ro Khanna Rohit Khanna (; born September 13, 1976) is an American politician, lawyer, and academic serving as the U.S. representative from California's 17th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated eight-term incumb ...
(D-Calif.), ho wrote:"I have been consistent of talking about the neocon thinking that led to the Iraq blunder and what followed." That actually isn't much of an improvement, because Khanna is repeating the canard that neocons were responsible for the Iraq War.

Boot is a proponent of perpetual deployment:

We need to think of these deployments n Afghanistan and Syriain much the same way we thought of our Indian Wars, which lasted roughly 300 years (ca. 1600-1890), or as the British thought about their deployment on the North West Frontier (today’s Pakistan-Afghanistan border), which lasted 100 years (1840s-1940s). U.S. troops are not undertaking a conventional combat assignment. They are policing the frontiers of the Pax Americana.

Boot expressed hope that if conservative TV news channels—

Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ...

, One America News and Newsmax—do not "stop propagating lies", "large cable companies such as

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

and Charter Spectrum need to step in" and "boot" them off, dealing with them "just as we do with foreign terrorist groups". Mark Ames of ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's ''The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', Adam Johnson of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting,

Tucker Carlson Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American television host, Conservatism in the United States, conservative Pundit, political commentator and writer who has hosted the nightly political talk show ''Tucker Carlson Tonight ...

and Glenn Greenwaldhttps://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1423754892682932224 have denounced Boot as a " warmonger".

Bibliography

* ''The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right''
Description

arrow/scrollable preview.
(Liveright Publishing Corporation/W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2018), * ''The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam'' (Liveright Publishing Corporation/W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2018), * ''Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present'' (Liveright, 2013), * ''War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today'' (Gotham Books, 2006), * ''The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power'' (Basic Books, 2002), * ''Out of Order: Arrogance, Corruption and Incompetence on the Bench'' (Basic Books, 1998),

References

External links

"MaxBoot.net"

Articles
at '' Commentary'' *

Live Debates for Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates {{DEFAULTSORT:Boot, Max 1969 births Living people People from Los Angeles American columnists American democracy activists American foreign policy writers American male non-fiction writers American legal writers American political consultants American political writers UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni The Wall Street Journal people Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Jewish American historians Jewish American journalists Russian emigrants to the United States American people of Russian-Jewish descent Soviet emigrants to the United States Soviet Jews CNN people Criticism of Donald Trump Historians from New York (state)

Personal life

Career

Political beliefs

Bibliography

See also

References

External links