Media

Most Recent

• Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions

  Listening to unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc. Can we teach leaders to become better strategic decision makers? Our guest Zach Shore says we can. Part of the problem he says is that people get stuck in rigid mindsets, which often involve the failure to take alternative perspectives. In his books “Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions,” and “sense of the enemy’ he aims to create a taxonomy of blunder causing mindsets and recount examples of effective strategic empathy through historical story telling. Greg and Zach discuss types of empathy, pattern breaking moments, definition of a “blunder,” an analysis of Putin, and the importance of truly understanding our enemies.

• The best books on knowing your enemy

  Five hand-picked books by Zachary Shore on Shepherd

• Rapid Response: The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Consequences for NATO and the EU

  Following the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, IES held a Rapid Response Event to discuss the immediate and long-term consequences of the invasion for NATO and the European Union. IES Director Jeroen Dewulf, IES Associate Director Akasemi Newsome, Sören Urbanksy, Head of Office of the German Historical Institute-Pacific Regional Office, and Zachary Shore, Professor of History at the Naval Postgraduate School and Senior Fellow at IES, analyzed the latest developments and took questions from the audience.

  The views I express are purely my own and not those of the Naval Postgraduate School, the Department of Defense, or the US government.

• Mention of my concept of strategic empathy by former U.S. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. (Ret.) H. R. McMaster during his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee

  Full transcript (PDF), March 2, 2021

• Write Now with Zachary Shore

  Interview by Justin Cox for The Writing Cooperative, Medium, October 2020

• How to fight Neo-Nazis

  Interview on KCBS Radio, San Francisco, August 24, 2017.

• What Would Trigger Conflict in Asia?

  Panel discussion with Zachary Shore, Graham Allison, Patrick Cronin, June Teufel Dreyer, and Toshi Yoshihara at the annual conference of the Center for a New American Security, Washington, DC, June 28, 2017.

  Zach’s opening remarks.

  Hear Zach’s comments on North Korea and Eastern Ukraine.

  See Zach’s comment on making education a matter of national security.

  Watch Zach's answer to the question “Where is war most likely to occur if it does occur in Asia?”

• Lê Duẩn 'thắng Mỹ nhưng cái giá quá cao

  Interview with BBC News Vietnamese Service on the anniversary of the fall of Saigon, April 30, 2017 (article in Vietnamese)

Video

• The Future of History

• Dialogue - Breeding Bin Ladens

Audio

• Breeding Bin Ladens

  It's Your World, March 19, 2009.

• How We Decide

  Forum, with Dave Iverson, January 23, 2009.

• Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions

  Tech Nation, with Dr. Moira Gunn, January 20, 2009.

• Interview with Celeste Quinn

  WILL, The Afternoon Magazine, december 19, 2008.

Articles

• Strategic Empathy: Assessing Leadership Behavior

  Zachary Shore speaks about A Sense of the Enemy with the online foreign policy magazine The Diplomat, May 10, 2016

• Who is Mr. Putin?

  Two leading experts on Russia at the Brookings Institution have used my concept of pattern-break analysis in their new book, Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin. Read the excerpt.

• The 38 biggest surprises of 2014

  What experts, politicians, and cultural leaders didn't see coming. The Boston Globe, December 28, 2014

• Empathy and Vladimir Putin

  Interview about the implications of pattern-break analysis for President Putin’s actions. Kevin Hartnett, The Boston Globe, March 18, 2014.

• High-tech effect on young Muslims

  Kevin Howe, Monterey Herald, March 28, 2007.

• Facetime

  Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle, January 28, 2007.

• Experts see no clear options for exiting Iraq

  Anna Badkhen, San Francisco Chronicle, October 9, 2006.

Reviews

My writings have been reviewed in numerous media outlets, some of which include: The Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Kirkus, BusinessWeek.com, American Prospect, Library Journal, Choice Magazine, (named Outstanding Title of 2007), The Financial Times, Washington Monthly, The New Republic Online, and Foreign Affairs.

• Sean Fear reviews ‘Provoking America: Le Duan and the Origins of the Vietnam War’

  Sean Fear, 17 June 2016.

• Foreign Affairs review of ‘A Sense of the Enemy’

  Lawrence D. Freedman, November/December 2014.

• O, The Oprah Magazine review of ‘Blunder’

  Elaina Richardson, November 2008.

Other Appearances

• Martha Stewart Living, Sirius XM Radio, July 22, 2009.
• Point of Enquiry, July 17, 2009.
• Book Notes, C-SPAN TV, September 3, 2007.
• Dialogue, Television show with host George Seay. Washington, DC, April 16, 2007. Guest for Dialogue's 900th interview.
• At Issue, Wisconsin Public Radio, host Gene Purcell, April 13, 2007.
• Alvin Z. Rubenstein Memorial Lecture, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 12, 2007.
• World Affairs Council, Dallas, Texas, April 5, 2007.
• World Affairs Council, Fort Worth, Texas, April 5, 2007.
• World Affairs Council, Carmel Valley, California, March 27, 2007.
• Extension 720, Host Milt Rosenberg, Chicago Radio, WGN, January 19, 2007.
• Is Europe Breeding Bin Ladens?, Mother Jones Radio, 2007.
• Murder in the Netherlands, The Diane Rehm Show, National Public Radio, November 18, 2004.