Ideas
Trump’s Fixation on the Hostage Crisis Is Driving His Iran Policy
The president’s approach to the Islamic Republic appears stuck in 1979.
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Don’t Use the Iran Crisis As An Excuse To Boost Pentagon Spending
Use it to reconsider the American approach to national security.
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US-Iranian Diplomacy Almost Worked. Let’s Try It Again
Direct talks may be too much to ask for at this stage, but tension-reduction measures promoted by third parties are still very plausible.
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5G Is Where China and the West Finally Diverge
The rollout of speedy new cellular networks is a geopolitical turning point, but neither Trump nor the public yet recognizes this.
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The Blueprint Iran Could Follow After Soleimani’s Death
Here’s what to expect after the U.S. killing of Iran’s most powerful military commander.
Ideas
The Soleimani Strike Defied the US Constitution
If Congress fails to respond effectively, the president will be left with the unmitigated power to take the country to war on his own—anywhere, anytime, for any reason.
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The Soleimani Assassination Is America’s Most Consequential Strike This Century
The U.S. attack against the top Iranian general will have far greater repercussions than the killings of al-Qaeda and ISIS leaders.
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Who’s Next? Trump Crossed a Line with Soleimani’s Assassination
The Iranian was much more than a general. Who else is the U.S. president willing to kill?
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The US Recently Made a Smart Move Toward Iran. Killing Soleimani Wasn’t It
The decision to focus on Tehran’s proxies in the wake of the embassy attack was the right course.
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Iran Loses Its Indispensable Man
The killing of Qassem Soleimani robs the regime of the central figure for its ambitions in the Middle East.
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What US Intelligence Thought 2020 Would Look Like
A 2004 National Intelligence Council report was eerily prescient in some ways, and totally off in others.
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A Bigger Foreign-Policy Mess Than Anyone Predicted
In the 2010s, global affairs turned out far worse than the most pessimistic scenario foretold by U.S. intelligence experts.
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In Iraq, the US Gets Hit Where It Hurts
The storming of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad demonstrated that America doesn’t have a monopoly on pressure.
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Progress, Peril, Hope: The Nuclear Decade in Review
U.S. policies that restrained and shrank atomic arsenals have been abandoned. Yet there are hopeful trends as well.
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Inside the Collapse of Trump’s Korea Policy
When it comes to America’s last-ditch effort to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power, timing has been everything. Now time’s running out.
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Put US Post-INF Missiles into Production
The U.S. has waited too long to mimic Chinese intermediate-range weapons.
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The Lessons of the Afghanistan Papers
Americans need leaders who can tell them how and when they will decide to pull the plug.
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Can Military Leaders Handle the Truth About Afghanistan?
Our recent poll suggests that public confidence in the military is high, but that it may be on shaky ground.
Ideas
Russia Is Waging Asymmetric Warfare Against the US — And We’re Letting Them Win
We must do more to harden against these attacks on our economy, institutions, and the public.
Ideas