Daniel L. Davis
Senior Fellow & Military Expert
Areas of expertise: American foreign policy, Middle East policy, Asia policy, grand strategy, international relations, international security, counterinsurgency, military analysis, land power
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Daniel L. Davis is a senior fellow and military expert at Defense Priorities. Davis retired from the U.S. Army as a Lt. Col. after 21 years of active service. He was deployed into combat zones four times in his career, beginning with Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and then to Iraq in 2009 and Afghanistan twice (2005, 2011). He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor at the Battle of 73 Easting in 1991, and awarded a Bronze Star Medal in Afghanistan in 2011. He is the author of The Eleventh Hour in 2020 America.
Davis gained some national notoriety in 2012 when he returned from Afghanistan and published a report detailing how senior U.S. military and civilian leaders told the American public and Congress the war was going well while, in reality, it was headed to defeat. Events since confirmed his analysis was correct.
His work on defense, foreign affairs, and social issues has been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Newsweek, CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, TIME, Politico, and other publications. Davis was also the recipient of the 2012 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-telling. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, Fox Business News, NBC News, BBC, CNN, and other television networks. He lives in the Washington, DC area.
Media Clips
Research and writing
In the opening rounds of the war, Russian armed forces made major errors in both the operational and tactical realm. In recent weeks though, Russia has made slow, methodical progress on the northern shoulder of Donbas. If Russia defeats Ukraine in the Battle of Donbas, Kyiv will face a difficult choice: (1) dig in and continue fighting, even though much of its most effective forces will have been captured or killed or (2) negotiate with Russia to trade territory lost since 2014 to stanch further losses of Ukrainian lives and territory.
Competition between the world’s two greatest powers is in some ways inevitable—but military conflict need not be. Geography, starting with the Pacific Ocean, and the positive sum outcomes of trade limit the dangers of competition with China. And U.S. allies, fortified with U.S.-supplied A2/AD defense systems and aided by other regional states, are capable of balancing a potentially expansionist China. That limits the risk of U.S.-China confrontation and the shadow it casts on cooperation in areas of overlapping interests.
The U.S. rightly went to war in Afghanistan after 9/11 to decimate Al-Qaeda and punish the Taliban. Following a swift victory, however, the mission transformed into a nation building venture, doomed to strategic failure, that has continued for more than 18 years. U.S. leaders incorrectly feared the failure of the Kabul government could create a safe haven for terrorists. But the U.S. is safe from terrorism because of its capability to gather intelligence on, and strike, anti-U.S. terrorists anywhere. This capability has only grown more sophisticated since 9/11. As tragic as it is, violence in Afghanistan should not be confused with U.S. security—and it should not slow the overdue withdrawal of all U.S. forces.
