John Wohlstetter

Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute
John C. Wohlstetter is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute (beg. 2001) and the Gold Institute for International Strategy (beg. 2021). His primary areas of expertise are national security and foreign policy, and the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He is author of Sleepwalking With The Bomb (2nd ed. 2014), and The Long War Ahead and The Short War Upon Us (2008). He was founder and editor of the issues blog Letter From The Capitol (2005-2015). His articles have been published by The American Spectator, National Review Online, Wall Street Journal, Human Events, Daily Caller, PJ Media, Washington Times and others. He is an amateur concert pianist, residing in Charleston, South Carolina.

Sleepwalking with the Bomb

About the Book Sleepwalking with the Bomb shows how we can forestall nuclear catastrophe. It offers familiar faces, cases and places to illustrate how the civilized world can face the most pressing nuclear dangers. Drawing from both history and current events, John Wohlstetter assembles in one place an integrated, coherent and concise picture that explains how best to avoid the “apocalyptic trinity” — suicide, genocide and surrender — in confronting emerging nuclear threats. Plaudits John Wohlstetter has given us a tour de force of our troubled nuclear condition… For many years Sleepwalking With the Bomb will be the standard against which all other work on nuclear issues will be measured. R. James Woolsey, Former Director of Central Intelligence; Chair, the

The Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us

The Long War Ahead and the Short War Upon Us, provides an assessment of the successes and failures of the United States’ War on Terror, six years after 9/11. As important, it provides a fresh perspective on how to meet the challenges posed by a war with many fronts in a complex and shifting environment. Mr. Wohlstetter sees two wars with very different challenges: a Long War lasting generations, against radical Islamist ideology, a civilizational war of survival, between imperfect civilization and perfect barbarism. The Short War is a war of prevention, attempting to head-off a WMD catastrophe, whose impact could make eventual victory in the Long War seem hollow. We have, Wohlstetter writes, failed to invest enough human and material resources to give ourselves the best chance