Russell Crandall is currently Associate Professor of Politics at Davidson College and a fellow at the Center for American Progress. He has also served as the director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, special assistant for counter-terrorism to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and advisor for Latin American security to the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. He is the author of Gunboat Democracy: U.S. Interventions in the Dominican Republic, Grenada, and Panama (2006) and Driven by Drugs: U.S. Policy Toward Colombia (2002).