-
1 week ago | 
homelandsecuritynewswire.com | Lawrence Freedman
IRAN’S NUKESShowdown in the Middle East Published 14 April 2025 In 2018, President Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, claiming that Obama’s deal wasn’t good enough and that he would get a better one by imposing “maximum pressure.” As was predicted in 2018, the Iranian response to the U.S. campaign of maximum pressure was not to offer the Americans more, but instead to press ahead with enriching Uranium to the point where they are now close to having enough to build some nuclear...
-
1 week ago | 
almendron.com | Lawrence Freedman
In Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 campaign to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, the United States and its coalition allies unleashed massive land, air, and sea power. It was over in a matter of weeks. The contrast between the United States’ grueling and unsuccessful war in Vietnam and the Soviet Union’s in Afghanistan could not have been more stark, and the speedy victory even led to talk of a new era of warfare—a so-called revolution in military affairs.
-
1 week ago | 
foreignaffairs.com | Lawrence Freedman
In Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 campaign to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, the United States and its coalition allies unleashed massive land, air, and sea power. It was over in a matter of weeks. The contrast between the United States’ grueling and unsuccessful war in Vietnam and the Soviet Union’s in Afghanistan could not have been more stark, and the speedy victory even led to talk of a new era of warfare—a so-called revolution in military affairs.
-
1 week ago | 
thetimes.com | Lawrence Freedman
-
1 week ago | 
newstatesman.com | Lawrence Freedman
On 12 April US and Iranian teams will meet in Oman to find a way out of the impasse on Iran’s nuclear programme. In 2015 a deal was agreed after some prolonged and painstaking negotiations led by the Obama administration, supported by the Europeans, Russians and Chinese. This was the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran agreed to cut back on its uranium enrichment programme in return for sanctions relief.
-
2 weeks ago | 
samf.substack.com | Lawrence Freedman
A 2006 image of a Uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, IranThis coming Saturday US and Iranian teams will meet in Oman to see if there is a way out of the current impasse on the Iranian nuclear programme. In 2015 a deal was agreed after some prolonged and painstakingly negotiations led by the Obama administration, supported by the Europeans, Russians, and Chinese. This was the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
-
2 weeks ago | 
samf.substack.com | Lawrence Freedman
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon during the conflict last year (Photo by Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)The headlines are currently dominated by President Trump’s new tariffs. These have led to a mass of commentary, little of it favourable, to the new measures. But Trump is not abandoning the rest of his agenda.
-
3 weeks ago | 
johnmenadue.com | Lawrence Freedman
As the Russo-Ukrainian War takes a darker turn it is important to emphasise this essential point. This is a war that Vladimir Putin cannot win, however long it lasts and however cruel his methods. From the start the Russian campaign has been hampered by political objectives that cannot be translated into meaningful military objectives. Putin has described a mythical Ukraine, a product of a fevered imagination stimulated by cockeyed historical musings.
-
3 weeks ago | 
johnmenadue.com | Lawrence Freedman
This war had begun badly for Russia and is likely to end badly. Even if the military campaign progressed with greater efficiency Putin was still likely to lose because he was following a delusional strategy reflecting his belief that Ukraine was a non-state with no national identity, that Kyiv could be taken quickly, so that President Zelensky could be deposed, and that a compliant puppet regime could be installed in his stead. Nothing has yet happened to make me change that view.
-
4 weeks ago | 
samf.substack.com | Lawrence Freedman
An oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai following an attack by Ukrainian drones. Was progress towards at least a partial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine made in Saudi Arabia on Monday? At first glance it seems so. As announced on Tuesday, there was an agreement to ‘ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes’ in the Black Sea. In addition discussions are to continue on ending attacks on energy infrastructure.
