Previously, he was the editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He was awarded the 2007 NSME "elle" for General Excellence. He was senior editor of the bimonthly magazine Foreign Policy, which he had worked for since 1997. He has contributed articles to Slate, the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Spectator, the Brown Journal of World Affairs, and Washington Monthly. He has also appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News, National Public Radio, and BBC. Prior to joining Foreign Policy, he was a research assistant at the Brookings Institution's Foreign Policy Studies program, and he served on the staff of a number of prominent national magazines, including SAIS Review, Spy Magazine, and Discover Magazine.