On February 1, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security hosted an Art of Future Warfare project Google Hangout with Matt Gallagher, author of Youngblood.

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down while ISIS rises up, the United States is left in a morally and strategically ambiguous position: should America keep troops and structures in place for extended periods of time until true security is established, or manage military engagement to mollify a war-weary American public? Through his latest writing, Matt traverses this complex landscape from the national and personal narrative perspectives. American and transatlantic leaders deal with these moral and strategic stakes every day, and Gallagher makes his readers and policy makers rethink their views on the complexities of our current and future involvement in Iraq and the Middle East region.

Matt Gallagher is a former US Army captain and the author of the acclaimed Iraq war memoir Kaboom, based on the popular and controversial blog he kept while he was deployed. He holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has written for the New York Times, the Atlantic, Daily Beast, and Playboy, among others. His debut novel Youngblood is forthcoming in February 2016 from Atria/Simon & Schuster.