I'm a reader-funded foreign correspondent and foreign policy analyst who has reported from the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Caucasus.

My first book, The Road to Fatima Gate, won the Washington Institute Silver Book Prize in 2011.

Send email to michaeltotten001 at gmail dot com.

Arab Spring or Islamist Winter?
World Affairs - January/February, 2012

The Longest War
City Journal - December 9, 2011

A Leaner, Meaner Brotherhood
The American Interest - November 30, 2011

Did We Lose in Iraq? No, and Here's Why.
The New Republic - October 28, 2011

In Egypt, with Liberals
Jewish Ideas Daily - October 19, 2011

The Swing State of the Levant
City Journal - October 13, 2011

Between the Green Line and the Blue Line
City Journal - Summer 2011

The Id of Mesopotamia
City Journal - August 19, 2011

The Tyrant of Damascus
City Journal - April 7, 2011

The Remaining Thugs
New York Post - April 5, 2011

What About Our Hearts and Minds?
New York Post - March 15, 2011

Libya's Legacy
The New Republic - February 23, 2011

Tunisia's Chace at Democracy
New York Post - January 16, 2011

On the Brink
City Journal - January 13, 2011

US in Mideast? Now They Want Us
New York Post - December 6, 2010

Dismantling Theories About ‘Hapless’ Portland Bomb Suspect
New York Daily News - December 1, 2010

How Israelis Secure Airports
New York Post - November 18, 2010

If You Shoot at a King You Must Kill Him
Commentary Magazine - April 12, 2010

Book Review: Vali Nasr's "Forces of Forture"
New York Times - January 24, 2010

The Middle East Has Always Been Hard
Commentary Magazine - January 22, 2010

From Baghdad to Beirut
City Journal - Winter, 2010

Terrorism's Mask of Sanity
Azure Magazine - Autumn, 2009

A Third Lebanon War Could Be Much Worse Than the Second
Commentary Magazine - November 20, 2009

The Show Needn't Go On
Commentary Magazine - November 13, 2009

Hezbollah Isn't a Model for Afghanistan
Commentary Magazine - October 14, 2009

Did Hezbollah Kill Hariri?
Commentary Magazine - May 26, 2009

The HuffPo's Lonely Planet Foreign Policy
Commentary Magazine - May 21, 2009

A Third Lebanon War?
Commentary Magazine - February 19, 2009

The Mother of All Quagmires
Commentary Magazine - January 27, 2009

Kosovo's Moderate Muslims
Wall Street Journal - December 29, 2008

The (Really) Moderate Muslims of Kosovo
City Journal - Autumn 2008

Iraq at the End of the Surge
Commentary Magazine - December 8, 2008

Iraq is Still Iraq
New York Daily News - December 8, 2008

Lebanon's Enemy Within
Commentary Magazine - October 27, 2008

Are You Going to the American Side?
Wall Street Journal - August 22, 2008

Report from Tbilisi
City Journal - August 20, 2008

A Perilous Peace
Commentary Magazine - July 29, 2008

The Truth About March 14
Commentary Magazine - July 18, 2008

Is the War Over?
Commentary Magazine - July 16, 2008

How Kosovo Created its Own Liberal Islam
Standpoint Magazine - July, 2008

No More Gazas
Commentary Magazine - June 17, 2008

Lebanon's Future
Commentary Magazine - May 16, 2008

The Real Iraq
City Journal - May 16, 2008

This is a Kosovar Muslim
Commentary Magazine - May 7, 2008

The Case of Bilal Hussein
Commentary Magazine - April 22, 2008

Hope for Iraq's Meanest City
City Journal - Spring 2008

Blasphemers Unite!
Commentary Magazine - April 4, 2008

Between West and East
New York Times - March 30, 2008

The Israel of the Balkans
Commentary Magazine - March 20, 2008

What I See Every Day in Iraq
New York Daily News - December 2, 2007

No Friends but the Mountains
Azure Magazine - Fall 2007

The Next Iranian Revolution
Reason Magazine - October 2007

Front-line Lessons from the Iraq Surge
New York Daily News - 8/29/2007

Welcome to Hizbullahland
The Jerusalem Post - 4/5/2007

Power, Faith, and Fantasy in the Middle East
Pajamas Media - 2/20/2007

The Kurds Go Their Own Way
Reason Magazine - August/September 2006

Across the Attila Line
TCS Daily - 3/29/2006

The Kurd Way
The Bulletin - 2/22/2006

The Enemy of Your Enemy is Sometimes Your Enemy
TCS Daily - 1/18/2006

Cyprus: NATO's Internal Cold War
TCS Daily - 1/11/2006

The Slow Rot of Hosni Mubarak
TCS Daily - 1/6/2006

Lebanon the Model
Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal - 1/3/2006

In the Land of the Brother Leader
LA Weekly - 12/30/2005

Guess Who's Coming to Iftar? A Meal to Remember with Hezbollah
LA Weekly - 12/16/2005

Car Bombs Return to Beirut
TCS Daily - 12/13/2005

No Peace Without Syria
Tech Central Station - 11/27/2005

The Source of the Chaos
Tech Central Station - 10/24/2005

Old School Terrorism in Lebanon
Tech Central Station - 10/18/2005

The Bosnia of Our Time
Tech Central Station - 8/22/2005

It's Not All About Us
Tech Central Station - 8/12/2005

Lebanon and Iraq: Partners in Freedom
The Daily Star - 7/22/2005

The Logic of Pacifism
Tech Central Station - 7/21/2005

Withdrawal Under Fire
Tech Central Station - 7/08/2005

Third Wave Gentrification
Tech Central Station - 6/23/2005

Thanked or Damned
Tech Central Station - 6/09/2005

Resolving the Clash of Civilizations
Tech Central Station - 5/25/2005

A Beirut Diary
LA Weekly - 5/13/2005

Our Friend, the Arab Street
Tech Central Station - 3/16/2005

Second Thoughts in Both Directions
Tech Central Station - 2/21/2005

They March for Themselves
Tech Central Station - 2/08/2005

Welcome to the Hotel Rwanda
Tech Central Station - 1/18/2005

Where The Communist Manifesto Meets The Koran
Tech Central Station - 1/04/2005

Marching Towards a Democratic Iraq
Tech Central Station - 12/21/2004

Crossing the Fossa Regia
Tech Central Station - 11/19/2004

Bomb My House...Please
Tech Central Station - 11/11/2004

Turkey and the Problem of History
Tech Central Station - 10/25/2004

Believe the Hype
Tech Central Station - 10/20/2004

The Liberal Case for Bush
Tech Central Station - 10/07/2004

Hawks and the Presidency
Tech Central Station - 9/20/2004

An American in Tunisia
Tech Central Station - 8/11/2004

The Berkeley Intifada?
Tech Central Station - 6/10/2004

Spinning for Al Qaeda
Tech Central Station - 5/26/2004

Saud-Free Arabia
Tech Central Station - 5/17/2004

Naming the Enemy
Tech Central Station - 5/5/2004

The New Neutrality
Tech Central Station - 4/15/2004

The Small Pleasures of Trade
Tech Central Station - 3/30/2004

Are the Jacksonians Sated?
Tech Central Station - 3/22/2004

Liberalism in the Balance
Tech Central Station - 3/08/2004

Kill Saddam
Tech Central Station - 2/19/2004

Iraq is not Vietnam
Tech Central Station - 11/18/2003

The Crucial Alliance
Tech Central Station - 10/27/2003

An Open Letter to the Party of Wilson and Roosevelt
Tech Central Station - 9/22/2003

The Globalization of Gaza
Tech Central Station - 7/28/2003

The Hindsight Effect
Tech Central Station - 5/30/2003

Builders and Defenders
Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal - 5/12/2003