She is an expert on strategy, international politics, and organized crime, and has written on a wide variety of issues related to India, China, Iran, Central Asia, North Africa, and political Islam. She is a co-author of The Muslim World after 9/11 (2004) and America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq (2003). She is also the author of Central Asia and Its Asian Neighbors: Security and Commerce at the Crossroads (2006) and articles in Orbis, the Atlantic Monthly, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, San Diego Sun Tribune, and Daily Yomiuri.