Browsing: U.S. policy

Iran’s uprising reflects deep economic and political failures exacerbated by recent conflict. Rather than military strikes, the U.S. should support political renewal defined by Iranians to prevent destabilizing collapse.

Syria’s fragile post-Assad transition faces a closing window. New freedoms clash with sectarian violence, shadowy governance, and broken reconstruction. The time to secure its future is now.

The analysis shows how Iran has adapted through sanctions evasion, eastward trade with China and Russia, de-dollarization, alternative banking systems, and welfare patronage networks that protect regime loyalists, ensuring state survival while shifting economic burdens onto the general population.

Iraq faces the dual challenge of managing spillover security risks from Syria’s collapse and navigating a weakened Iran. While this offers Baghdad a chance to assert independence, a stable, secure Iraq is its best defense against becoming a new frontline for Tehran.

Having secured electoral victories and control over key state institutions, the PMF leverages its formal status to enrich itself and challenge rivals. Its campaign to expel U.S. forces risks an ISIS resurgence and could turn Iraq into an Iranian client state.