Commentary and Analysis

"There's been tension building, but yesterday, what happened last night, was definitely an escalation," Paul Poast says of the ongoing conflict between the two nations.

"The current situation is at a much higher level of intensity to where it doesn't seem like that's going to be easy to achieve, if it could even be achieved at all," Paul Poast says of diplomacy between the United States and Iran.

"I suspect that Israel, like a lot of other countries, just decided that [Iran's nuclear] program was moving ahead too quickly," Cécile Shea says.

With Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine demonstrated it has a lot of fight left. All that means is that the war is set to rage on, Paul Poast writes.

"The way that this war stops is very simple," Ivo Daalder argues. "It is when the pressure on Russia is significant enough that they decide that the benefits of continuing the war are outweighed by the benefits of stopping."

Given Tehran’s weakened state and Washington’s eagerness for a deal, success is possible. However, it’s more likely to resemble the 2015 one Trump abandoned.

Several states that had long been under the US nuclear umbrella are considering developing their own nuclear weapons. Paul Poast digs into the implications.

The norm against territorial conquest has underpinned the post-World War II rules-based order—but it seems to be weakening, Paul Poast writes.

Prashant Rao, Liz Sly, and Giles Whittell join Ivo Daalder to discuss the week's top news stories.

Steven Erlanger, Matt Kaminski, and Nahal Toosi join Ivo Daalder to discuss the week's top news stories.