Is an American scholar of international relations and U.S. grand strategy. He wrote “Perspective on the Balkans: The Next War Has Begun” as a commentary piece originally published by the Los Angeles Times on August 19, 1999; at the time, he was a visiting scholar at USC’s Center for International Studies and a MacArthur Foundation fellow in global security. Since then, Layne has served as University Distinguished Professor of International Affairs and held the Robert M. Gates Chair in National Security at Texas A&M University’s Bush School, and he is the author of The Peace of Illusions: American Grand Strategy from 1940 to the Present (Cornell University Press, 2006).