Writing and Editing on the Rocks

Being an editor involves saying “no,” quite a bit. 85 percent of submissions to both the Texas National Security Review and War on the Rocks never make it to publication. At the recent Clements Center Summer Seminar on History and Statecraft in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Doyle Hodges, executive editor of TNSR and chief publishing officer of War on the Rocks, and Megan Oprea, managing editor of TNSR, spoke to the assembled students about how to be in the 15 percent that do wind up in our pages. The question of how to write clearly and persuasively for policy audiences is asked frequently by students and practitioners alike. Doyle and Megan decided to reprise their talk for this episode of Horns of a Dilemma.

Image:Acroterion, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons