Kurdistan Between Tehran and Ankara
Wedged between Turkey and Iran, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has become a crossroads of two competing regional orders. As Iran’s axis of resistance frays under economic strain and regional backlash, Tehran is scrambling to reinforce its influence through coercive diplomacy and the creation of a new strategic corridor to the Mediterranean. At the same […]
America’s Options in Afghanistan
Four years have passed since the United States withdrew in chaos from Afghanistan, abandoning important projects, leaving behind billions of dollars of equipment and handing the Taliban many other assets in that country. The Taliban still rule Afghanistan. They face a mountain of unresolved problems yet are ready to employ as much force as necessary […]
The Future of the Israel-Azerbaijan Partnership: Will it Survive Iran Regime Change?
Today Jerusalem is all-in on Baku. The Israeli media repeatedly publish fawning accounts by analysts who participate in Azerbaijani junkets and partake in caviar diplomacy. But what happens to Israel-Azerbaijan bilateral relations if the partnership actually succeeds in ending Iran’s Islamic Republic? The 30-year partnership is based on a swap of arms for energy, paying […]
America’s Latin America Problem
Twenty years of US neglect have created space for adversaries to build permanent footholds in the Western Hemisphere. Iran and other adversaries are quietly building an operational network in America’s backyard, one that sanctions alone cannot dismantle. The Venezuela Nexus Recent testimony from Hugo “Pollo” Carvajal, Venezuela’s former intelligence chief, reveals the depth of Iran-Venezuela […]
Reconciliation Bills and the Defense Budget
Both during his presidential campaign and since taking office, President Donald Trump has repeatedly echoed Ronald Reagan’s famous phrase “peace through strength,” while emphasizing the major emerging long-term threat from the People’s Republic of China. Despite Trump’s pronouncements, however, his fiscal year 2026 budget falls short of the defense spending levels that the Biden administration […]
Iran Must Relearn the Lessons from Its Eight-Year War with Iraq
The Islamic Republic of Iran, in the 12 Day War with Israel, witnessed the dramatic end of a strategy Iran spent thirty years perfecting and what it worked so hard to avoid: international isolation and direct military strikes on its own territory. Learning from Trauma Iran’s “proxy strategy” was born from trauma. The eight-year war […]
Hamas at a Crossroads
Today’s Hamas is a very different organization from the one we knew from its formal establishment in December 1987 through its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Yet many politicians, members of the intelligence community and media commentators still insist on viewing the Palestinian “Islamic Resistance Movement” [the translation of the Arabic acronym […]
A Regime Collapse Strategy for Iran
The 12-Day War and President Trump’s conclusion of it did little to resolve a range of non-nuclear Iranian threats. These include drones (which attack American allies from Kyiv to Tel Aviv), terrorist proxies, and assassination plots inside America. If past is prologue, then Tehran will again seek to bloody America wherever and however it can, […]
Why Donald Trump Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize
In an era where symbolism often overshadows substance, the idea of awarding Donald J. Trump the Nobel Peace Prize can be dismissed as political theater. Yet such dismissal risks overlooking a complex, inconvenient truth: Trump’s Middle East policy produced one of the most significant realignments in regional geopolitics in generations. From the crossroads of tradition […]
A Netanyahu Visit Like No Other
On July 7, Prime Minister Netanyahu will have his third Oval Office meeting with President Trump in six months. But this will be a visit unlike any before it. Netanyahu arrives in Washington as the man who won the Twelve Day War with Iran. He will also be there as President Trump’s (occasionally difficult) wartime […]
