Geopolitics

Three fronts, one process: Iran deal gains momentum on inspections, truce, and Gulf diplomacy BURGENSTOCK, Switzerland. The Iran deal moved forward on three separate fronts Monday and Tuesday, in what may be the most coordinated sequence of diplomatic activity since the war began 115 days ago. Vice President JD Vance announced from a Swiss mountaintop […]

The Iran deal Trump signed may be the prelude to the next war The memorandum of understanding that President Trump signed with Iran last week ended 115 days of open war. But as Foreign Policy’s Daniel Byman argues in a new analysis, the agreement may be better understood as an intermission. Byman, a Georgetown professor […]

Britain prepares for its seventh prime minister in a decade LONDON. Keir Starmer stood on the steps of Downing Street on Monday morning. He did what British prime ministers have been doing with alarming regularity for ten years: he resigned. “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party,” Starmer said, his voice breaking near […]

This is a follow-up to this morning’s article on Trump threatening from Washington as Vance met Iran in Switzerland (trump-threats-vance-talks-switzerland). What follows is the next chapter in that story. The diplomatic process set in motion at the Burgenstock resort has produced two closely related outcomes in quick succession: a formal 60-day roadmap toward a final […]

China Hits Back: Beijing Sanctions 10 US Defense Companies, Excludes 46 Others From Government Procurement in Retaliation for Pentagon Blacklist China imposed sweeping sanctions on Monday against American defense and industrial firms, retaliating for the Pentagon’s recent decision to add major Chinese technology companies to its blacklist of military-linked entities. The coordinated countermeasures, announced simultaneously […]

Ukraine Launches TrophyLab Platform to Share Captured Russian Weapons Intelligence with Allies Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has launched TrophyLab, an access-controlled online platform that provides allied governments, defense companies, and research institutions with technical intelligence gathered from captured Russian military hardware. The initiative, announced June 19 by Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, represents a systematic effort […]

President Donald Trump took to social media this weekend with a dramatic claim: vandals had deliberately sabotaged the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and he was personally ordering immediate repairs. The reality on the ground tells a different story one of a rushed vanity project, a no-bid contract awarded to a Trump donor’s firm, […]

This is a follow-up to this morning’s article on Iran closing Hormuz and the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire collapse (iran-hormuz-closure-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire). What follows is the next chapter in that story. The numbers coming out of the Strait of Hormuz are no longer a warning. They are a verdict. Ship tracking data, war risk insurance filings, and live maritime […]

BURGENSTOCK, Switzerland. The central paradox of American diplomacy toward Iran played out in full view on Sunday as Vice President JD Vance sat down with Iranian officials at a luxury resort overlooking Lake Lucerne while, thousands of miles away in Washington, President Donald Trump fired off threats to restart the very war his own administration […]

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin went before Congress this month with a confident declaration: the primary U.S.-Mexico border wall will be finished by June 2027. A secondary reinforcement wall would follow by summer 2028. All remaining construction contracts, he assured lawmakers, would be out the door by the end of the fiscal year. It was […]