Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Jenny Williams
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The cost of Trump’s “no” at Hormuz
On Saturday, 26 September, US President Donald Trump announced that he had rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and bring hostilities to an end. Within hours, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the intermediaries carrying messages between the two governments had conveyed no such rejection to…
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New York is becoming a stage for speeches, not decisions
The 81st United Nations General Assembly opened under the unusually self-aware theme of “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all”. Yet one of the week’s most revealing diplomatic images was not in New York at all. President Xi Jinping travelled to Washington for a state visit…
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Sinking the empire: How Western militarism surrendered the arteries of global trade
For decades, the architects of foreign policy in Washington and Tel Aviv operated under a remarkably persistent yet fundamentally flawed conviction. They assumed that overwhelming military supremacy could permanently dictate regional architecture and bludgeon sovereign actors into compliance. Yet, a dispassionate reading of history consistently demonstrates that when imperial ambition…
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No equal talks under siege: The contradiction at the heart of US policy on Iran
The latest direct exchange of attacks between the United States and Iran has returned the region to an old and dangerous rhythm: Washington fires, threatens further punishment and then leaves the word “diplomacy” hovering above the wreckage. At almost the same moment, Tehran has again placed a negotiated route on…
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From Gaza to Iran, Washington’s wars are becoming an electoral liability
A political rally in Florida should not, by itself, tell us much about the direction of American foreign policy. This one might. With only three days to go before Florida’s Democratic primary, a Fort Lauderdale venue cancelled an event featuring Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and congressional candidates Angie Nixon, Elijah Manley…
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America’s war on international justice
There is something revealing about the way Washington talks about international law. When the law moves against an adversary, it becomes the language of civilisation. When the same law approaches the United States or Israel, it suddenly becomes an assault on sovereignty. That hypocrisy is no longer subtle. The Trump…
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America’s Gulf bases are turning allies into targets
There is a hard truth Gulf capitals do not like to say aloud: hosting an American base does not only buy protection. It also rents out geography. It turns ports, airfields and small countries into possible addresses in a war they may not have chosen and cannot easily control. That…
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Israel’s pressure is testing America’s Iran diplomacy
A deal with Iran is never allowed to be just a deal with Iran. That is the first rule of Washington politics. The moment a diplomatic opening appears, another conversation begins behind it: what will Israel accept, what will the lobby tolerate, and how far can any American president go…
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How Washington profits from Iran’s pain
There is a strange ritual in Washington whenever Iran is discussed. The language begins with democracy, women’s rights, non-proliferation and regional stability. It then somehow ends with sanctions, threats, aircraft carriers, television panels and, eventually, bombs. Since Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement, coercion has been sold as concern.…
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The hypothesis of the collapse of powers like Iran fails in the real world
In the intellectual circles of Washington and its allies, a growing certainty is evident: a combination of military and economic pressure can bring Iran to its knees or drive it towards collapse. Analysts present detailed three-step plans to “crush Tehran” and postulate that the West holds strategic superiority. However, a…
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A ground war with Iran risks another Vietnam for America
Washington has a favourite word for moments like this: options. It sounds sober. Responsible, even. It suggests prudence, flexibility, a commander-in-chief keeping every door open. But in practice, “options” is often just the polite way this town avoids saying what it is really doing. It is preparing itself, step by…
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Trump disappointed, Iran resolute: Leadership amid war
Donald Trump said he was “disappointed” by Iran’s choice of Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader. The remark was vintage Trump: blunt, theatrical and heavy with the assumption that Washington still has the right to sit in judgement over the inner life of other nations. Yet the more…
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America First or Israel First? Trump’s Iran policy sparks important questions
Donald Trump has made the “America First” doctrine central to his political campaign and presidency. His presidency has been presented as a departure from a US foreign policy that drew America into multiple wars abroad, fuelling instability and draining resources. Many supporters backed Trump because they saw this doctrine as…
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Iran’s protests and the question of external involvement
In recent weeks, Donald Trump and a large section of the international media have pushed a familiar storyline: that protesters in Iran want the United States to step in militarily and bring down the country’s leadership. Trump has paired that messaging with threats of major military action. He has not…
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Two years after 7 October: Gaza’s resistance endures, but leaders still look away
Two years after 7 October, 2023, Gaza remains the region’s rawest wound and the clearest test of whether international law still restrains power when civilians stand in the line of fire. The front is no longer confined to a small coastal strip. It runs through ports and parliaments, courtrooms and…
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Calibrating power: A people-first US approach to the Middle East
Foreign policy is not abstract for most Americans. It arrives as an unexpected deployment that rearranges a family’s year, a quiet chair at the dinner table, a neighbour back from overseas who smiles yet startles and city budgets that delay the library roof because resources flowed elsewhere. For too long…