Danny Sjursen
Non-Resident Senior Fellow
Danny Sjursen is a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. His public writing and scholarship focuses on U.S. military policy, the Greater Middle East, imperialism, civil rights history, and the linkages between war and empire at home and abroad. A retired U.S. Army officer and West Point graduate, he served combat tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at the military academy. He transitioned to full time writing, speaking, and activism in 2019, and is now a contributing editor at antiwar.com. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, HuffPost, Mother Jones, The Hill, Salon, Popular Resistance, Scheer Post, and Tom Dispatch, among other publications. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. His forthcoming book, Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War is now available for pre-order; Steerforth Press will also publish his comprehensive revisionist history of the United States in mid-2021. Prior to joining CIP, Danny was a fellow at Defense Priorities and continues to research and publish part-time with the Future of Freedom Foundation. He co-hosts the podcast "Fortress on a Hill," with fellow vet Chris "Henri” Henrikson. In recent years, he’s been active in intersectional antiwar/social justice organizations such as About Face: Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace. Sjursen was selected as a 2019-20 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Fellow. He lives with his two sons in Lawrence, KS, home of the University of Kansas - where he earned an MA and is completing a PhD in American History. Follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet and visit his professional website for further information and past work.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
BOOK
September 8, 2020
Book: Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War
By Danny Sjursen, Senior Fellows
"This incendiary work by Daniel Sjursen is a personal cry from the heart by a once-model US Army officer and West Point graduate who became a military dissenter while still on active duty. Set against the backdrop of the terror wars of the last two decades, Sjursen asks whether there is a proper space for patriotism that renounces entitled exceptionalism and narcissistic jingoism. Once a burgeoning believer and budding conservative, Sjursen performed an intellectual and spiritual about-face. He now calls for a critical exploration of our allegiances, and he suggests a path to a new, more complex notion of patriotism. Equal parts unsentimental and idealistic, this is a story about what it means to be an American in the midst of perpetual war, and what the future of patriotism might look like." You may learn more and purchase the book at heydaybooks.com/patriotic-dissent.
LATEST NEWS
May 7, 2021
Conflicts of Interest #106 The Empire Loses a Key Pawn in Africa guest Danny Sjursen
Featuring Danny Sjursen
On COI #106, Danny Sjursen returns to the show to discuss the death of Chadian President Idriss Deby, who was killed in fighting with rebels in late April. While Chad is a key player in US and French 'counter-terrorism' operations across Africa's Sahel region, Danny explains how the country has overextended its forces on multiple fronts and faces increasing instability, all compounded by Deby's demise.
May 18, 2021
Refusing Erasure: Palestinian Resistance, Israel’s Hopeless Fury, and a Coming Cataclysm
Danny Sjursen
Despite increasingly right-wing Israeli intransigence, and American apathy or antagonism, the Palestinian people – not their divided and corrupt Fatah or Hamas "leaders" – refused to be silenced. Few Western commentators counted on that. They should have.
May 6, 2021
Deby’s Death, Chad’s Crisis, and the Ghosts of Libyan Fiascoes Past
Danny Sjursen
Joe Biden uttered the word "Africa" exactly once in his first address to a joint session of congress, marking the vaunted presidential cliché of his first "100 Days" in office. It was a tangential reference, but its context, implications – and what Biden didn’t say – were somewhat instructive.