Subscriber Exclusive: An Iran Hawk on the Cease-Fire

With the cease-fire extended and the negotiations ongoing, the shape of a postwar Iranian regime is already beginning to emerge. The Islamic Republic seems to be emerging from the conflict simultaneously weakened and emboldened. How is its new leadership plotting its own future? Can Iran absorb more strikes amid a blockade of its ports? Karim Sadjadpour, a leading expert on Iran, joined FP Live to assess the regime’s staying power and what a postwar Islamic Republic means for the wider region.

Has the United States become a rogue state? FP columnist Stephen Walt certainly thinks so, arguing that the White House is using “positions of leverage built up over decades to exploit allies and adversaries alike.” And the war in Iran, he writes, “underscores that the administration either didn’t understand how its actions would affect other states or simply didn’t care.” If Walt is right, what does it mean for the future of global order? Join FP Live for a discussion about recent U.S. foreign policy and how the world is adapting to the Trump era. 

While much of the world has welcomed news of a fragile cease-fire in the Middle East, one group feels the White House pulled out too soon: Iran hawks. John Bolton argues that the administration should have used its military momentum to not only secure maritime trade but also to, once and for all, take out the Iranian regime. Bolton served as national security advisor in the first Trump administration before falling out with the president. Bolton joined FP’s Ravi Agrawal, who has argued Trump is losing the war, for a debate.

The United States has become the world’s largest producer of both crude oil and natural gas, giving the White House a strong set of cards as it thinks about its foreign policy. But even so, Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is driving up the global price of oil, which also hurts U.S. consumers. Why is energy becoming a foreign-policy cudgel, and what can countries do to protect against it? Meghan L. O’Sullivan, author of Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power, joined FP Live’s Ravi Agrawal to discuss how countries should think about the energy shock caused by the war in Iran.