Historically, one of the greatest dangers to a major power in the international system is letting smaller allies and clients drag that power into an unwise war. Both the United States and leading European powers seem inclined to make that blunder with respect to the...
The war in Iran is unlawful and unconstitutional, but in post-World War II America, it is normal. Here is the backstory. When President Donald Trump decided to begin bombing Iran last June, he did not state a coherent or lawful reason for doing so. His director of...
As the war in Iran has reached its fifth month, progress fails to be made and opposition continues to mount. And while President Donald Trump certainly deserves his fair share of the blame, the playbook he’s using is in no way his own. Since the Cold War, the United...
Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi’s Substack. Oman and Iran appear close to a temporary arrangement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, potentially providing both an exit from the current round of fighting and the foundation for a more durable maritime order....
Reprinted from The Realist Review. “The enemy at last was plain in view, huge and hateful, all disguise cast off. It was the Modern Age in arms…” Such was the view of the English novelist Evelyn Waugh’s finest fictional creation, Guy Crouchback, in the days following...
The U.S. government continues to demonstrate its knack for pursuing remarkably foolish foreign policies that have terrible consequences. Many thought that President Trump was going to rectify this problem, at least somewhat. After all, he promised to shut down the...
By all conventional measures, America is losing the war with Iran. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has survived the U.S.-Israeli regime change effort, and it seems as though the hardline factions in Iran have been empowered. They also maintain their...
After several days of increasing threats against Iran, including social media posts like “FINISH THE JOB!” and “Take the oil. No mercy!,” President Trump has over the weekend called off a planned major escalation in the Middle East. For now. “The U.S.A. is locked and...
The sharp swings in oil prices following the latest round of attacks and negotiations over safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz demonstrate that wars do not always reveal themselves first on the battlefield. Sometimes, their earliest signs appear on gas-station...
Seventy-two bodies came out of the water at Tarajal, and the sea kept giving some of them back through the weekend. They drowned in sight of Europe, in the fourteen-kilometer channel where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic, reaching for a seven-square-mile scrap of...
