Norman Podhoretz, the long-time editor of Commentary magazine and a lion of neoconservatism, died on Dec.16 in Manhattan. He was 95.

His intellectual odyssey took him from an ardent embrace of the left to a condemnation of a world order that in his eyes had become spineless in the face of Soviet expansionism and, later, Islamist militancy.

In his 35 years at the helm of Commentary, published by the American Jewish Committee, Mr. Podhoretz transformed the magazine from as distinguished journal of social and political criticism into a more controversial and influential voice. “Norman laid the groundwork for the muscular democratizing version of neoconservatism,” said Jacob Heilbrunn, a scholar of the movement.

The Podhoretz doctrine reached its influential peak in the administration of President George W. Bush, who awarded Mr. Podhoretz the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He was also a foreign policy adviser to Rudolph W. Giuliani’s aborted campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.