A specialist in Germany, he has written extensively for "Time," "The New York Times, National Geographic," the "London Sunday Times Magazine, Playboy," and "U.S. News & World Report," where he was a White House correspondent. He has also been an Institute of Politics Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington; and a Distinguished International Visiting Fellow at the University of North Carolina Journalism School. He lives in Washington, DC.