Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Jenny Williams
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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…