Rieff was educated at the New Lincoln School,[2] Lycée Français de New York and attended Amherst College as a member of the class of 1974, where he studied under Benjamin DeMott.

[7] Rieff has published articles in newspapers and journals including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, El País, The New Republic, World Affairs, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, The Nation.

Despite his initial support of the tenets of Liberal internationalism, he was critical of American policies and goals in the Iraq War.

[9][10] His 2016 article in The Guardian, "The cult of memory: when history does more harm than good"—which argues that some mass atrocities are better forgotten[11]—sparked a debate at the International Center for Transitional Justice.

"[1] G. John Ikenberry, reviewing Rieff's 2005 book At the Point of a Gun: Democratic Dreams and Armed Intervention for Foreign Affairs, called him "one of the most engaging observers of war and humanitarian emergencies in such troubled places as Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq".