In 2005, Kroenig worked as a strategist in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he was the principal author of the first ever U.S.-government-wide strategy for deterring terrorist networks (as referred in the book Counterstrike, chs. 2, 11[6]).
From 2010 to 2011, Kroenig returned to the Pentagon on a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship to serve as a special advisor on Iran policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.[7] In that role, he developed strategic options to address Iran's nuclear program. Upon leaving, he gained widespread attention for his writing on the viability of the U.S. military option for degrading Iran's nuclear facilities, including in The New York Times[7] and Foreign Affairs.[8]
During the Republican primaries of the 2016 election, he was first a senior national security advisor to Scott Walker's campaign, and then a senior advisor on Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign.[10] During the primary, Kroenig signed a "Never Trump" letter, denouncing his candidacy. He has said that he signed the letter because he saw it as part of the campaigning for Rubio.[10] After Trump became president, Kroenig regretted signing the letter.[10] A few months into the administration, Kroenig wrote a Foreign Affairs article defending the Trump administration's foreign policy.[10]
He is a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University. He is the Atlantic Council's vice president and senior director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.[9][11]
Reception
He has been named as one of the top 25 most-cited political scientists of his generation by a 2019 study in Perspectives on Politics.[12]
Kroenig's research which argues that the states with greater nuclear superiority and greater stakes are more likely to win disputes has been disputed by other scholars who fail to find that nuclear superiority increases the likelihood of favorable bargaining outcomes.[13][14][15]
Kroenig has drawn criticism over his argument for war with Iran to prevent it from pursuing nuclear weapons.[16][17][18]Bill Keller wrote that "Kroenig ... apparently aspires to the Strangelovian superhawk role occupied in previous decades by the likes of John Bolton and Richard Perle. His former colleagues at Defense were pretty appalled by his [Foreign Affairs] article, which combines the alarmist worst case of the Iranian nuclear threat with the rosiest best case of America’s ability to make things better".[7]
Publications
Books
Kroenig is an author, co-author, or co-editor of seven books. These include:
The Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy Versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the U.S. and China (2020)[19]
The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy (2018)[20][9][21]
Nonproliferation Policy and Nuclear Posture: Causes and Consequences for the Spread of Nuclear Weapons (2015)[22]
A Time to Attack: The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat (2014)[23]
The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey (2011)[24]
Causes and Consequences of Nuclear Proliferation (2011)[25]
Exporting the Bomb: Technology Transfer and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons (2010)[26]
Articles
China Is Both Weak and Dangerous, Foreign Policy, December 7, 2020 (co-authored with Jeffrey Cimmino)[27]
