For more than twenty years now, American leaders from both parties have talked about turning over a new leaf in the Middle East. One president pushed hard for democracy promotion, another tried diplomatic outreach, and someone else swore we’d finally end the “forever...
When the Iran War Is Over: The West Bank May Be Netanyahu’s Next Front
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing perhaps the most precarious moment of his political career. He knows it. His allies know it. And his rivals – both within his coalition and across Israel's political spectrum – are preparing to capitalize on his...
The Iran Fiasco’s Silver Lining: Trump, Bibi, and the Neocons Got Their Clocks Cleaned
If you don’t think the Donald inhabits an alternative universe – just set your mandibles loose to chomp on his most recent missive. According to history’s most gifted practitioner of the Art of the Deal, only one thing really counts with respect to his Paperless...
Trump, the Democrats and the Courage To End a Failed War
Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi’s Substack. I have spent years fighting against Trump’s push toward war with Iran, and I have the scars to prove it. When Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018, I warned that it would eventually bring us to this moment. Ever...
The World Government That Wasn’t
Reprinted from The Realist Review. There are certain episodes in Cold War history that modern conservatives are expected to treat as either sinister fantasy or liberal delusion. The McCloy–Zorin Accords of 1961 occupy a curious place. Explain the concept today and...
Democratic Party’s Corollary to the Donroe Doctrine
Donald Trump’s second term has precipitated a tsunami of criticism from Democrats over his foreign policy. Yet when it comes to Washington's efforts to dominate Latin America and the Caribbean, the substantive dispute – if there is any substance remaining, once...
Does Trump Want To Resolve the Iran Crisis or Redesign the Middle East?
In diplomacy, negotiations sometimes fail not because solutions are lacking, but because objectives become too numerous. A negotiating table established to address a specific crisis suddenly transforms into a platform for fulfilling a wide array of geopolitical...
How Stable Is the China-North Korea Alliance?
For more than 7 decades, leaders of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) have emphasized that their countries maintain an exceptionally close political, economic, and security relationship. Mao Zedong even stated during the...
The US-Israel Wars on Iran: Follow the Money
Like most of America’s wars in West Asia, the current joint U.S.-Israel attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran is about securing control over the region’s energy resources and preserving oil currency policies; practices that have fueled its expansive economy since the...
The Mladenov Distraction: Behind the Screen, Netanyahu Is Annexing Gaza ‘Step-by-Step’
Gaza requires urgent international attention. What is happening in the besieged and devastated Strip at the moment by far exceeds an unfolding humanitarian disaster; it is a calculated geopolitical reshaping. Israel is actively executing a plan to permanently occupy...


