Trump entered office promising a historic breakthrough with Iran. Instead, the United States finds itself in a costly war with no clear path to peace. Why has Washington repeatedly failed to move from confrontation to diplomacy? And what does the current conflict mean for America's strategy in the Middle East? Christopher Chivvis is joined by Robert Malley of Yale University's Jackson School and Carnegie's Stephen Wertheim to examine why diplomacy has repeatedly broken down, what is driving the war today, and what a more sustainable U.S. approach to Iran might look like.
President Trump entered office promising a historic breakthrough with Iran. Instead, the United States finds itself in a costly war with no clear end in sight. Despite moments of optimism for diplomacy, fighting persists, raising difficult questions about why Washington has repeatedly failed to escape decades of conflict with Tehran.
Why has it proven so difficult for successive administrations—Republican and Democratic alike—to replace confrontation with diplomacy? What political and strategic forces keep pulling the United States back toward conflict? And what does the current war mean for America's interests, the Middle East, and the years ahead?
In this episode of Pivotal States, Christopher Chivvis is joined by Robert Malley of Yale University's Jackson School, a lead U.S. negotiator for the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, and Carnegie's Stephen Wertheim to examine these questions.