Strategic Culture

What is driving the sudden focus on ‘the flawed system’ in Lebanon is simply hard reality, Alastair Crooke writes.

What if maximum pressure fails either to implode the Iranian state politically, nor brings Iran to its knees, begging for a new nuclear deal?

The MidEast may pass through its crises but be aware that the there is no alternative meme is becoming reason for protestors ‘to burn the system down’

Lebanon is ‘special’ in its own distinct way – but yes, it precisely is giving warning of a turbulence quietly incubating across the Middle East.

It is not just that Israel’s influence in Congress puts him in a risky political corner. But a bigger danger is that Israel cannot change course.

The question is: can Trump’s instinctive, creative ambiguity hold the line of US credibility (which exists more in the eye of the domestic beholder?)

What has the ‘international style of architecture’ – now going out of fashion – got to do with today’s geo-politics?

The US is ‘blowing smoke’ about launch sites mainly to divert from the very obvious (but embarrassing) fact that the raining down of missiles on Abqaiq, primordially owes to the Saudi war on Yemen (supported unreservedly by Trump).

In all the hullabaloo of Brexit and its associated parliamentary infighting, little noticed has been how Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson are attempting to change the very nature of the UK political landscape.

There is consensus amongst the Washington foreign policy élite that all factions in Iran understand that – ultimately – a deal with Washington on the nuclear issue must ensue. It somehow is inevitable.