Before its closing in December 2018, he was Senior Writer at The Weekly Standard, the journal of politics and culture founded in 1995, having served as Literary Editor during 2005–17.

He is the author of Architects of Power: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and the American Century (Encounter Books 2010).

For two decades before joining The Weekly Standard, Terzian wrote a column syndicated by the Scripps Howard News Service, and reported from dozens of foreign countries.

He has been a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, The New Criterion, Harper's, The Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement, London Sunday Telegraph, Commentary, the Sewanee Review and other publications.

He is married and the father of two children and, among his avocations, is honorary whip of the Wolver Beagles of Middleburg, Virginia.