Schanzer & Nichols Critique the U.S. “Shadow War”
In a review of Mark Mazzetti’s book, “The Way of the Knife,” Professors David Schanzer and Tim Nichols discuss problems with the United States’ reliance on secret operations to combat terrorism and the costs of relying so heavily on these methods in the current counterterrorism strategy. The review – entitled “The Costs of the Knife,” published in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, takes a candid look at the “diminishing returns” that secret counterterrorism operations are producing and suggests rediscovering the “virtue of patient, persistent diplomacy, the efficacy of soft power, and the benefit of truly reciprocal alliances rather than transactional relationships.”