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Aug 28, 2026, 12:14 PM

Trump’s Pressure Campaign Comes for Iran

Washington must demonstrate that economic pressure is intended to produce a political outcome rather than become an end in itself. (ChatGPT AI generated image of Donald Trump looking back at the flag of Iran amidst rubble in Tehran. Trump is moving beyond degrading Iran's nuclear ambitions or targeting the IRGC. The emerging objective is to weaken the regime's capacity to govern.)

Can Washington force Tehran back to the negotiating table by making continued economic engagement with Iran increasingly costly for the rest of the world? When President Donald Trump announced a new escalation of economic pressure on Iran, critics portrayed the...

Aparajita Acharya

Aug 22, 2026, 5:18 PM

Iran Gets More Room in BRICS. Should Israel Worry?

The BRICS meeting in Jaipur on August 12 saw Iranian Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati push for Iran's entry into the New Development Bank, greater use of national currencies and closer payment-system links among members. The NDB is nowhere...

Aug 21, 2026, 5:42 PM

Why Iran’s Threat Keeps Coming Back

Detail of the Israeli national flag highlighting the Star of David, emphasizing its cultural significance as from the Pexels website (https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-the-flag-of-israel-4033852/).

What if the Middle East’s recurring confrontation with Iran is not simply a story about a hostile regime, missiles, nuclear facilities or proxy forces, but about a political system capable of repeatedly rebuilding its power—and what would it take...

Aug 20, 2026, 9:00 PM

Regime Change in Iran and the Reordering of the Gulf

Regime Change in Iran. An AI Illustration.

Discussions of “regime change” in Iran typically conflate two distinct questions: whether the Islamic Republic can be removed, and whether removing it would produce a stable successor. Comparative politics offers a useful distinction here: between a regime (a ruling...

Aug 20, 2026, 9:24 AM

Why I’m Changing My Mind About Trump’s Naval Blockade of Iran

In June I wrote that the strategy behind the American naval blockade was to provoke Iran's implosion, and I doubted the instrument could deliver it. Six days ago I showed that no blockade in the past century has ever...

Aug 17, 2026, 12:48 PM

The False Economy of Abandoning Israel

Vibrant American flag flying against a clear blue sky, symbolizing freedom and patriotism from the website Pexels, free download for non-commercial use (https://www.pexels.com/photo/us-a-flag-on-pole-under-blue-sky-7483195/).

What if the biggest misconception in America's debate over Israel is not political but economic? For decades, American politicians have argued about whether Washington gives Israel too much. They should ask a different question: how much would America have to...

Aug 17, 2026, 10:19 AM

Iran’s Easier Nuclear Target Is Washington, Not Jerusalem

On November 5, 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini gave the United States a name that has outlived him: the Great Satan. Israel he called the Little Satan, a lesser devil chained to the greater one. For more than four decades the...

Aug 15, 2026, 9:57 AM

Could Trump’s Iran Rhetoric Ever Turn Explicitly Nuclear?

Trump's threats against Iran already run near the ceiling of what a president can say out loud. In April, hours before a deadline he had set for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, he wrote that a whole...

Aug 14, 2026, 8:30 AM

Wars Do Not End the Way Trump Thinks They Do

The demand is documented and can be stated precisely. In June 2025, during the twelve-day war in which American bombers struck three Iranian nuclear sites, Trump published a single line in capital letters on Truth Social: "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" In...

Aug 12, 2026, 10:22 AM

The Signs That Would Prove Iran Has a Nuclear Bomb

Eight of the world's nine nuclear powers detonated a device before anyone called them nuclear powers. The ninth is Israel, and its case has gone unresolved for 47 years. Iran has detonated nothing. Two earthquakes raised suspicion of a secret...

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