Foreign Policy Live

The Iran war has become the most serious foreign-policy challenge for U.S. President Donald Trump in his second term. But does it reveal a larger point about U.S. power? Stephen M. Walt, a professor at Harvard University and Foreign Policy columnist, argues that it does and that the United States is increasingly acting like a rogue state. What damage will this cause, and what can countries do about it?

Plus, Ravi offers his read on Hungary’s election and why it matters for the world.

Thomas Carothers: Why Viktor Orban’s Fidesz Party Lost

Stephen M. Walt: The United States Has Become a Rogue State

Foreign Affairs: Stephen M. Walt: The Predatory Hegemon

Ravi Agrawal: Trump Is Ushering In a More Transactional World

Howard W. French: Trump’s Recipe for Accelerated U.S. Decline

Pew Research Center: International Views of China Turn Slightly More Positive

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The Trump administration’s plans in the Middle East are often criticized by those who say he shouldn’t have attacked Iran. But the White House is also facing flak from those who say that it didn’t go far enough. John Bolton is a longtime proponent of regime change in Iran. He served as national security advisor in the first Trump administration before falling out with the president. Bolton joined FP’s Ravi Agrawal for a debate.

Plus, Ravi gives his read on the tenuous Middle East cease-fire. 

Ravi Agrawal: Why Trump Mishandled Iran

New York Times: John Bolton: Finish the Job: How Trump Can Still Win in Iran

Ali Hashem: The Iran Cease-Fire Has Only Divided the War

Raphael S. Cohen: Trump’s Iran War Is a Dilemma, Not a Debacle

Eric Brewer: Preventing an Iranian Bomb Is Only Getting Harder

Stephen Walt: America’s Pro-War Elites Must Be Held Accountable

Rishi Iyengar: Trump’s Pivot to Pakistan

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After news of a 14-day cease-fire in the middle east conflict, Ravi shares his initial thoughts and analysis.

Plus, the rationale for attacking Iran revolved around security. How did the global narrative become about energy? Iran’s strongest weapon has turned out to be its ability to strangle the Strait of Hormuz, an important trade choke point. What does the return of energy as a weapon mean for the global economy? 

Meghan O’Sullivan, author of Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power, explains how countries need to think about their energy security. She is a professor at Harvard University and has previously served as deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan in the George W. Bush administration. 

Ravi Agrawal: Why Trump Mishandled Iran

New York Times: How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran

Amir Handjani: The War Will End With a Hormuz Toll Booth

Nils Gilman: Electrostates vs. Petrostates

Jason Bordoff and Spencer Dale: Making the U.S. More Resilient to Oil Price Shocks

Foreign Affairs: Jason Bordoff and Meghan L. O’Sullivan: The Return of the Energy Weapon

Foreign Affairs: Jason Bordoff and Meghan L. O’Sullivan: The Iran Shock And the Dangerous Allure of Energy Autarky

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As the U.S.-Israel war against Iran enters a second month of conflict, how is Tehran’s surviving leadership thinking about an endgame? And how will the conflict reshape geopolitics in the region?

Ali Vaez has extensive contacts with Iranian lawmakers and sits down with Ravi Agrawal to discuss the regime’s options. Vaez is a project director at the International Crisis Group.

Plus, Ravi’s Read on how the White House seems to be winning the battle but losing the war. 

Ravi Agrawal: Trump Is Losing the War in Iran

Robert A. Pape and Ali Vaez: The Iran War Has Escaped Its Authors

Zakiyeh Yazdanshenas: What Iran Wants From the War

Thomas Juneau: Get Ready for a Weaker but Nastier Iran

Menahem Merhavy: Iran’s Civilizational Rhetoric Is Hollow

Arash Reisinezhad: Iran’s Biggest Wartime Advantage is Geography

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Crude and gas prices are soaring after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on regional energy infrastructure amid war in the Middle East. How bad could the energy shock get and for how long? FP columnist Jason Bordoff sits down with Ravi Agrawal to discuss.

Bordoff previously served in the Obama administration as a senior director for energy and climate change in the National Security Council. He is also the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

Jason Bordoff and Spencer Dale: Making the U.S. More Resilient to Oil Price Shocks

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj: The Iran War Is Jeopardizing the Entire Global Economy

Jason Bordoff and Erica Downs: How the Iran War Could Consolidate China’s Energy Dominance

Keith Johnson: Iran Is Putting a ‘Toll Booth’ in the Strait of Hormuz

Nils Gilman: Electrostates vs. Petrostates

Keith Johnson: Europe and the U.S. Still Haven’t Choked Off Russia’s Energy Riches

Maisoon H. Kafafy: Empty Words Don’t Open Straits

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It’s widely accepted that the post-WWII order has changed, but the question remains—what comes next? Political scientist Hal Brands maps out three possible scenarios in a cover essay for Foreign Policy’s latest print issue and joins FP Live to discuss. 

Brands is a professor of global affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World.

Hal Brands: Three Scenarios for a Post-Trump World

Emma Ashford: A Better Trans-Atlantic Relationship Is Entirely Possible

Sarang Shidore: Can Middle Powers Gel?

Suzanne Nossel: What Would an Abundance Foreign Policy Look Like?

Nils Gilman: Electrostates vs. Petrostates

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It’s no secret that democracy is in trouble. Studies show that a growing number of countries are less free, and polls suggest ordinary citizens are losing faith in their governments. What can be done to fix this?

Hélène Landemore has a radical solution: to get rid of politicians and electoral politics and instead create assemblies of ordinary citizens. She explores this concept in her new book, Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule, and joins FP Live to interrogate the idea. 

Hélène Landemore: The Problem With Representative Democracy

Nicholas Bequelin: The Age of Defensive Democracy

Hélène Landemore: More Power to More People

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As the war in Iran soon enters its third week, two experts join FP Live for a debate. Were the United States and Israel justified in attacking Iran? And will the war advance U.S. interests in the region, or set them back? Trita Parsi and Matthew Kroenig sit down with executive editor Dan Ephron to discuss.

Parsi is the executive vice president at the Quincy Institute, and Kroenig is an FP columnist and a senior director at the Atlantic Council.

Trita Parsi: Iran’s Despair Is U.S. Policy

Matthew Kroenig: The Case for Destroying Iran’s Nuclear Program Now

Matthew Kroenig: Why a Wider War with Iran Is Unlikely

Matthew Kroenig: Trump Made History. Now the Iranian People Can, Too.

Michael Hirsh: So This, Finally, Is the ‘Trump Doctrine’

John Haltiwanger: The Trump Administration’s Iran War Justifications Keep Changing

Suzanne Nossel: It’s Time to Retire the Pottery Barn Rule

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As the United States and Israel attack military facilities across Iran, Tehran has been retaliating. But it has attacked Gulf countries more than it has targeted Israel. Why? And how will the likes of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates respond? Will it shift their geopolitical alignment away from the United States?

Regional experts Mina al-Oraibi, the editor in chief of the National, and Firas Maksad, a managing director at the Eurasia Group, join FP Live to share their perspectives.

Khalid al-Jaber and Omar H. Rahman: Security Alliances With the U.S. Have Made Gulf States More Vulnerable

David Petraeus and Clara Kaluderovic: The Drone Attrition Trap

Macdonald Amoah, Morgan D. Bazilian, and Jahara Matisek: The First 36 Hours of War Consumed Over 3,000 U.S.-Israeli Munitions

Firas Maksad: The Middle East Has Two New Rival Teams

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj: The Iran War Is Jeopardizing the Entire Global Economy

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On Saturday, Israel and the United States struck Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran has been responding with volleys of missiles aimed at Israel—and also at several other countries in the region. How will the conflict end? How long can Tehran sustain this fight? Iran expert Vali Nasr joined Ravi Agrawal for an emergency episode that ran live on the afternoon of Monday, March 3. 

Daniel Byman: 6 Questions About Operation Epic Fury

Barbara Slavin: Death Comes to the Dictator

Ali Hashem: Iran Is Built to Withstand the Ayatollah’s Assassination

Alireza Nader and Nik Kowsar: Khamenei Is Dead. Who’s In Charge of Iran?

Amos C. Fox and Franz-Stefan Gady: Iran, Israel, and the U.S. Are Racing the Clock

Anchal Vohra: Iran’s Proxies Are Out for Themselves for Now

Emma Ashford: Trump Is Betraying His Base by Waging War on Iran

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