Derek Leebaert

Derek Leebaert
Nationality	American
Genre	non-fiction

Derek Leebaert is a partner at effectivRAI ^[1] and an author of books on history and politics. He won the biennial 2020 Truman Book Award for Grand Improvisation ^[2] , and he's a founder of the National Museum of the United States Army.^{[ citation needed ]} During 2009-2019, he served as a board member for Ascension Health, and he remains involved in the national debate over access to quality healthcare.^{[ citation needed ]}

Leebaert published Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made which was a Wall Street Journal "Best Book of 2023" and "recommended reading" from McKinsey. Presidential historian Richard Norton Smith praises it as "having done the near impossible--craft[ing] a fresh and challenging portrait of the man and his inner circle. . . .A book to regard in the same breath as the classics of Sherwood, Schlesinger, and Burns." The Guardian reviewed it as "masterful."

Writings

To Dare and to Conquer was a Washington Post Book World "Nonfiction Best Book" of 2006, ^[3] . His book, Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy from Korea to Afghanistan, in 2010 warns that much of US foreign policy is based on ignorance of that country's history and culture. ^[4] His previous book, Grand Improvisation (2018) was a New York Times "Best Book," and reviews are found in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Review of Books, the Times (London), et al. Leebaert also co-authored the MIT Press trilogy on the IT revolution, including The Future of the Electronic Marketplace and The Future of Software. . ^[5]

Life

He holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt (history/economics), an M.A. from Columbia University (international affairs), and a D.Phil. in political economy from Oxford University (1983). He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard's Center for Science and International Affairs, where he also captained the university's pistol team. From 1996 to 2000, he taught the annual Management of Technology class in Georgetown University's MBA program, and then, from 2001-2010, he taught a senior seminar, "The Price of U.S. Global Engagement," annually for Georgetown's Department of Government.

In Washington, Leebaert served as chief economist of the Information Industry Technology Council, and was appointed a Smithsonian Fellow. He is a founding editor of three enduring periodicals: International Security, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and The International Economy. He was in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, and has been a foreign policy adviser to the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. He is a member of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.

Works

Author

• The Fifty-Year Wound: How America’s Cold War Victory Shapes Our World Boston : Little, Brown, 2002. ISBN   9780316518475, OCLC   47023559 ^[6]
• To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations from Achilles to Al Qaeda New York : Little, Brown, 2006. ISBN   9780316143844, OCLC   859079737 ^[3]
• Magic and Mayhem: the Delusions of American foreign policy from Korea to Afghanistan, New York : Simon & Schuster, 2010. ISBN   9781439141670, OCLC   764542809 ^{[7] [8]}
• Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945–1957, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2018. ISBN   9780374250720, OCLC   1019972309 ^{[9] [10] [11]}
• Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made, St. Martin's Press, 2023. ISBN   9781250274694 OCLC   1310772643

Editor

• European Security : prospects for the 1980s, Lexington, Mass. : Lexington Books, 1981. ISBN   9780669025187, OCLC   615033433
• Soviet Military Thinking , London; Boston : Allen & Unwin, 1981.
• The Future of the Electronic Marketplace, MIT Press, 1998.
• The Future of Software, MIT Press, 1995
• Technology 2001: The Future of Computing and Communications, MIT Press, 1991

References

1. "effectivRAI Team" . Retrieved 2 April 2025.
2. "2020 Harry S. Truman Book Award Honors Derek Leebaert". Truman Library Institute. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
3. Clark, Wesley K. (2006-03-12). "The Commando Option Small groups of audacious soldiers have repeatedly shown the military value of the unexpected". The Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2018-10-27.
4. Kaiser, Robert G. (10 October 2010). "Book review: 'Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy From Korea to Afghanistan' by Derek Leebaert". Washington Post. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
5. "Bloomberg - Executive Profile, Derek Leebaert D. Phil. Director, Providence Hospital Corporation". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
6. THE FIFTY-YEAR WOUND by Derek Leebaert | Kirkus Reviews.
7. Kaiser, Robert G. (October 10, 2010). "Book review: 'Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy From Korea to Afghanistan' by Derek Leebaert". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
8. "Coffey | Magic & Mayem". www.unc.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
9. Evans, Harold (October 19, 2018). "How the United States Achieved World Leadership". The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
10. Louis, Wm Roger (2018-10-16). "'Grand Improvisation' Review: Rising Eagle, Wounded Lion". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2018-10-27.
11. Shepherd, William J. ""Grand Improvisation": Derek Leebaert on the "Special Relationship"". The Churchill Project. Hillsdale College. Retrieved 2 April 2025.

External links

• Postwar Delusions: Why America Keeps Making Mistakes Abroad by Derek Leebaert
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• "Derek Leebaert". The Globalist. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
• "Derek Leebaert". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2018-10-27.