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Peter Lampert Bergen (born December 12, 1962) is an American journalist, documentary producer, historian, and author, best known for his work on national security and counterterrorism. He has written or edited ten books—three of which were New York Times bestsellers, and four were named among the best non-fiction books of the year by the Washington Post. The books have been translated into 25 languages. He has served as a producer of multiple Emmy-nominated documentaries. Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, a vice president at the think tank New America, and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. Bergen produced the first televised interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, in which bin Laden declared war against the United States to a Western audience.
He is a professor of practice at the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University, where he is the co-director of the Future Security Initiative, Peter Bergen. ASU.edu. Accessed July 30, 2023. and the director of the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence. He is a research fellow at Fordham University's Center on National Security. About Us. Center on National Security
He hosted the Audible podcast In the Room with Peter Bergen from early 2023 to early 2025. He has held teaching positions at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University Peter Bergen AspenInstitute.org and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Strategic Studies Faculty. SAIS-JHU.edu. Accessed July 30, 2023.
Bergen is on the editorial board of Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, the leading scholarly journal in the field, and has testified 18 times before US congressional committees, including the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee and the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is a member of the Homeland Security Experts Group. Aspen Homeland Security Group Members, AspenInstitute.org. Accessed July 30, 2023. Bergen is the chairman of the board of the Global Special Operations Foundation, a non-profit advocating for the interests of special operations forces. Global SOF Foundation Executive Team, GlobalSOFFoundation.org. Accessed July 30, 2023. He is on the Advisory Council of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which advocates for Americans held hostage or "wrongfully detained" by states.
He was a fellow at New York University's Center on Law & Security between 2003 and 2011, Al Qaeda Now: Networks, Strategies, Goals, The Center on Law and Security website. Accessed July 30, 2023. was a contributing editor at The New Republic for many years, Peter Bergen profile, NewRepublic.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. and editor of the South Asia Channel and South Asia Daily, South Asia. ForeignPolicy.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. online publications of Foreign Policy magazine from 2009 to 2016. He was the founding editor of the Coronavirus Daily Brief which operated during the pandemic.
Holy War Inc. was translated into 17 languages. Jeff Stein in the Washington Post called Holy War "equal parts journalism, history, and whimsical travelogue." Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times states that Bergen "does a succinct job of pulling together a wealth of information into a coherent ... narrative ... that impresses upon the reader the crucial role that the Afghan-Soviet conflict played in radicalizing many Islamic militants ... and replacing the notion of Arab nationalism with that of a larger Islamist movement." Bruce Hoffman wrote in The Atlantic that Holy War gives a "unique perspective ... into bin Laden's mindset and behavior." For instance, he references bin Laden's education and work experience in his family's construction business that later informed his decisions on how to "transform Al Qaeda ... into the world's pre-eminent terrorist organization."
Bergen was the recipient of the 2000 Leonard Silk Journalism Fellowship and was the Pew Journalist in Residence at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in 2001 while writing Holy War, Inc. Journalists-in-Residence, International Reporting Project at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
His third book, (2011), a New York Times bestseller, Hardcover Nonfiction, nytimes.com. February 6, 2011. Accessed July 30, 2023. gave an overview of the War on Terror and was named by the Guardian " The Longest War By Peter Bergen – review", TheGuardian.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. and Newsweek "The Essential War on Terror Books", Newsweek.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. as one of the key books about terrorism in the past decade. The Longest War also won the Washington Institute's Gold Prize for best book about the Middle East. Book Prize, WashingtonInstitute.org. Accessed July 30, 2023. and was named by Amazon, The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda, Amazon.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. Kirkus 2011 Best of Nonfiction: Current Affairs, KirkusReviews.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. and Foreign Policy FP's Favorite Reads of 2011, ForeignPolicy.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. as one of the best books of 2011.
Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times wrote that The Longest War is an "essential book" that provides a "succinct and compelling overview" of the War on Terror. Thomas E. Ricks, also writing for the New York Times, declares that Bergen "covers it all," adding, "For years, I tried to read every new novel about how 9/11 affected our lives. None of the novels were as effective or moving as The Longest War, which is a history of our time."
Bergen's 2012 New York Times bestseller May 20, 2012 Hardcover Non-Fiction. NYTimes.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. was . "Bin Laden's End, From the Beginning", The New York Times. Accessed July 30, 2023. The Washington Post named Manhunt one of the best non-fiction books of 2012, Best of 2012: 50 notable works of nonfiction, WashingtonPost.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. and The Guardian named it one of the key books on Islamist extremism. Jason Burke: the key books on Muslim extremism, The Guardian. November 7, 2012. Accessed July 30, 2023. It was the 2012 Sunday Times (UK) Current Affairs Book of the Year. The book was awarded the Overseas Press Club Cornelius Ryan Award for best non-fiction book of 2012 on international affairs. Cornelius Ryan Award, opcofamerica.org. Accessed July 30, 2023. The book was the basis of the HBO documentary film, , Manhunt, HBO.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival winning the Grand Jury Prize Sundance 2013 and won the Emmy award for Outstanding Documentary in 2013. Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for bin Laden, Emmys.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. Bergen was the Executive Producer of the film. He was awarded the Stephen Ambrose History Award in 2014. "Rutgers' Stephen E. Ambrose Oral History Award Goes to Peter L. Bergen, Journalist Who Produced Famous CNN Interview with Osama bin Laden", Rutgers.edu. Accessed July 30, 2023.
Manhunt was translated into 10 languages. Dina Temple-Raston in the Washington Post wrote Manhunt is "a real-life thriller that will be a must-read for years to come" and "crackles with insider details." Similarly, Duncan Gardham at The Telegraph called it a "rattling and thoroughly researched read on the last days of the world's most notorious terrorist." Michiko Kakutani at the New York Times favored the "fascinating . . . descriptions of internal debates within the Obama administration" in Manhunt, as well as the accounts of the work done by intelligence analysts to develop a method of tracking bin Laden down.
Bergen co-edited, with Katherine Tiedemann, Talibanistan: Negotiating the Borders Between Terror, Politics, and Religion, a collection of essays about the Taliban published by Oxford University Press in 2013. Talibanistan, Global.OUP.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. He co-edited, with Daniel Rothenberg, Drone Wars: Transforming Conflict, Law, and Policy, published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. Drone Wars, Cambridge.org. Accessed July 30, 2023.
In 2016, Bergen published . It was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2016 by the Washington Post. HBO adapted the book for the documentary film, Homegrown: The Counterterror Dilemma. Homegrown, HBO.com. Accessed July 30, 2023.
In the New York Times, former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano wrote that "Bergen's book is the best one-volume treatment available on the current state of jihad in America." Michiko Kakutani, also in the Times, wrote that Bergen's "profiles of jihadists . . . leave the reader with a harrowing appreciation of the banality of evil" and "Mr. Bergen's detailed accounts of terror plots (both executed, foiled or failed) make for chilling reading." Zach Dorfman in the Los Angeles Times assessed that "Bergen takes a generally skeptical view of the growth of the post-9/11 national security state and of the fear-mongering about Islam that has increasingly transfixed the darker crannies of American politics."
Bergen's was published in 2019. The Washington Post described it as "the best single account of Trump's foreign policy to date." "An Inside Look at Trump's Foreign Policy: 'This is literally insane'", The Washington Post. Accessed July 30, 2023. In a 2019 interview at Fordham Law School, Bergen discussed the themes of Trump and His Generals. He examined the influence of senior military officers such as Jim Mattis, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, and General John Kelly, and highlighted tensions between the generals and the president over strategic decisions, including the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Syria. He also addressed how the administration’s stance on NATO was shaped by Trump’s longstanding views about burden-sharing among allies and a broader desire to reduce American military commitments overseas.
Bergen published The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden in 2021. Named one of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and Kirkus Reviews, in the New York Times, Louise Richardson, vice chancellor of Oxford University, wrote that the book is “Meticulously documented…fluidly written…replete with riveting detail…" In The Guardian, author and journalist Jason Burke said the biography offered readers "an authoritative and convincing portrait of a man whose misdeeds changed all our lives in many ways, none for the better." Burke stressed how Bergen leveraged newly disclosed documents from the Abbottabad raid to present a nuanced portrayal of Osama bin Laden's private life.
Bergen has been nominated four times for – in 1994 (CNN), 2001 (National Geographic), 2006 (CNN), and 2018 (CNN). NOMINEES FOR THE 39th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS ANNOUNCED
Between early 2023 and early 2025, he hosted the Audible podcast "In the Room with Peter Bergen." He was a producer of "Ghosts of Beirut" for Showtime in 2023, a docudrama series directed by Greg Barker that traced the long conflict between the CIA and Hezbollah.
He co-produced, with Tresha Mabile, the National Geographic Channel documentary, American War Generals (2014) which featured interviews with several high-ranking U.S. Army officers, including Colin Powell, Stanley McChrystal, and David Petraeus. The film examined both the Army's post-Vietnam restructuring and the difficulties encountered in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq War. In a commentary on the documentary, American journalist Thomas Ricks noted a tension between the Army's successful post-Vietnam rebuild and what he described as its insufficient preparedness for counterinsurgency conflicts in the early twenty-first century. "Filmmaker Peter Bergen to Discuss National Geographic Documentary on War", Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. August 28, 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-19.
Bergen and Mabile produced CNN Films' Legion of Brothers, which premiered at Sundance in January 2017. It was released in theaters in June 2017. It was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Politics and Government documentary in 2018. "Nominees for the 39th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards", emmyonline.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. In 2020, together with the producers of Homeland, he produced the Showtime documentary, The Longest War, which documented the CIA's long involvement in Afghanistan.
On May 2, 2016, the five-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden, CNN aired the documentary We Got Him: President Obama, Bin Laden, and the Future of the War on Terror. "ANDERSON COOPER 360° SPECIAL WE GOT HIM: PRESIDENT OBAMA, BIN LADEN AND THE FUTURE OF THE WAR ON TERROR", CNN.com. Accessed July 30, 2023.
In addition to interviewing President Barack Obama in his first sit-down interview in the Situation Room, Bergen also conducted the first in-depth interview with the architect of the bin Laden raid, Admiral William H. McRaven, as well as interviewing senior administration officials including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Four of Bergen's books have been made into documentaries for CNN, HBO and National Geographic. The documentaries based on Holy War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know were nominated for Emmys in 2001 and 2006. Bergen was a producer of those films. Manhunt was the basis of the HBO documentary film, Manhunt, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary in 2013. Bergen was Executive Producer of the film. HBO adapted United States of Jihad for the 2016 documentary film, Homegrown: The Counterterror Dilemma.
In 1997, as a producer for CNN, Bergen produced bin Laden's first television interview, in which he declared war against the United States for the first time to a Western audience. Osama bin Laden Fast Facts, CNN.com. Accessed July 30, 2023. In 1994, he won the Overseas Press Club Edward R. Murrow award for best foreign affairs documentary for the CNN program Kingdom of Cocaine, OPC Awards Current Recipients OPCofAmerica.org. Accessed July 30, 2023. which was also nominated for an Emmy. "HBO Leads the Pack with 89 CableACE Nominations...", LATimes.com. Accessed July 30, 2023.
Bergen co-produced the CNN documentary, Terror Nation, which traced the links between Afghanistan and the bombers who attacked the World Trade Center for the first time in 1993. CNN Presents: Terror Nation? U.S. Creation? IMDB.com The documentary, which was shot in Afghanistan during the civil war there and aired in 1994, concluded that the country would be the source of additional anti-Western terrorism. TV REVIEWS: Did U.S. Create Terror Monster. LATimes.com From 1998 to 1999, Bergen worked as a correspondent-producer for CNN. "Osama bin Laden's 'holy war' began years ago." CNN.com He also produced documentaries on the Clinton administration, the Cali Cartel, the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress, and advances in AIDS research. He was program editor for CNN Impact, a news magazine co-production of CNN and TIME, from 1997 to 1998. "Impact: CNN & TIME on Special Assignment", CNN.com. Accessed July 30, 2023.
Previously, he worked for CNN Special Assignment as a producer on a wide variety of international and U.S. national stories, including the first network interview with white supremacist author, William Luther Pierce. From 1985 to 1990 he worked for ABC News in New York. In 1983, he traveled to Pakistan for the first time with two friends to make a documentary about the Afghan refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion of their country. The subsequent documentary, Refugees of Faith, was shown on Channel 4 (UK).
His story on extraordinary rendition for Mother Jones was part of a package of stories nominated for a 2008 National Magazine Award. Exclusive: I Was Kidnapped By The CIA, Mother Jones. He has written for newspapers and magazines around the world such as The Guardian, "This link between Islamist zealot and secular fascist just doesn't add up", TheGuardian.com. January 30, 2003. The Times, "We've found Bin Laden – now how are we going to kill him?", TheSundayTimes.co.uk. Accessed July 30, 2023. The Daily Telegraph, "Osama bin Laden: Softly-spoken but focused, he railed against the 'tyranny of America'", Telegraph.co.uk. Accessed July 30, 2023. International Herald Tribune, "What Osama wants" – Opinion: International Herald Tribune, NYTimes.com. October 26, 2006. Accessed July 30, 2023. Prospect, Mowing the lawn. ProspectMagazine.co.uk El Mundo, Osama bin Laden, el fugitivo mas buscado del mundo, celebra su 50 cumpleanos, ElMundo.es. October 3, 2007. La Repubblica, La sfida a Bin Laden si sposta sul web, Repubblica.it. August 11, 2008. The National, Survey says: Stop backing Musharraf, TheNational.ae. Accessed July 30, 2023. Die Welt, "Al-Qaida hat bei Gotteskriegern ein Imageproblem", Welt.de. Accessed July 30, 2023. and Der Spiegel.
In 2015, Seymour Hersh criticized Bergen for "viewing himself as the trustee of all things Bin Laden" after Bergen wrote a piece for CNN.com disputing what he called Hersh's revisionist account in the London Review of Books about the raid that killed bin Laden. Bergen wrote that Hersh's account was "a farrago of nonsense that is contravened by a multitude of eyewitness accounts, inconvenient facts and simple common sense." "Was there a cover-up in bin Laden killing?", CNN.com. Accessed July 30, 2023.
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