As violence mounts in Afghanistan, confidence in the Karzai government wanes, and Taliban influence spreads, the Obama administration has committed to pouring 17,000 additional troops into the country. Fick, who served in Afghanistan both as a Marine and as a civilian contractor, offers insights while attempting to answer critical questions: What has gone wrong? What are America's interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan? What's achievable there?

Fick is currently the chief operating officer of the Center for a New American Security, a centrist national security and foreign policy think tank in Washington. Prior to joining the Center, he served as a Marine Corps infantry and reconnaissance officer, including operational assignments in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. In 2007, Fick was a civilian instructor at the Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Academy in Kabul, and has made several additional trips there.

In addition to his bestselling autobiography One Bullet Away, Fick's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today, among other publications. He is a frequent contributor to CNN, NPR, and the BBC. Fick is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and serves as a Director of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation and the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College.