Vali Nasr's videos and podcasts
This week
Good analysis of the challenges Pakistan faces if it were to get involved in Yemen. One that is not mentioned is that Pakistan is also in a quasi war with the Taliban Afghanistan. Would Iran exploit that vulnerability?If Pakistan open a front with Houthis, would Iran throw its support behind the Taliban? Comments by an Iranian parliamentarian in Kabul last week caused quite a bit of worry in Islamabad.
Earlier this month
The war in Yemen is escalating, and wave of Houthi attacks on Saudi oil facilities and increasingly airports will soon make this war even bigger, and if US-Iran war resumes, Yemen-Saudi conflict will become a hot front in that war. The Middle East is on the edge of a much larger region-wide war
With allowing Russian sale of Diesel fuel US has decided to sacrifice any semblance of common purpos...
US has decided to sacrifice any semblance of common purpose with Europe on Ukraine for continuing the war with Iran. For Europe, the Ukraine war and the Russia threat remains its most significant strategic problem. Arguing that Iran is a civilizational enemy of the West, going back to Ancient Greece, cannot paper over this significant break between US and Europe.
Why does Iran remain defiant in the face of severe economic pressure and threat of renewed war? In our new piece in @ForeignAffairs Narges Bajoghli and I examine what is being missed in how Iran sees the state of play
In our new piece in Foreign Affairs Narges Bajoghli and I discuss Iran’s theory of victory, why Tehr...
The retreat of American forces from bases in Persian Gulf first to Jordan and Israel and then Britai...
The retreat of American forces from bases in Persian Gulf first to Jordan and Israel and then Britain and now retreating from Britain is a setback before an effective Iranian strategy, but it will have much broader unintended consequences for US military presence and effectiveness in other areas of the world https://t.co/Hr0qOrUeqH
Akbar Shahid Ahmed's Crossing the Red Line is a searing examination of how the Biden team (mis)manag...
September 2026
That Trump has rejected Iran’s seven day proposal is not a surprise. The proposal was a demand that U.S. return to the MoU but with implementation terms favorable to Iran. Some analysts in Iran call it Islamabad Plus.
Mark Carney on how grave Canada's rupture with US has become: "on whether he took Trump’s threats to...
My interview with The Wire on US-Iran: Where are we at? What can we expect next? | Live https://lnkd...
Trump ordered US to bomb Houthis on Sunday and then changed his mind. US is short on ammunition or i...
My commentary for CSIS on the ways in which the security order in the Middle East has changed. The war will inevitably reduce U.S. regional influence and ability to play the role of security guarantor for its allies just as Iran sees its role and influence expanding https://t.co/lcXuXT6bd4
My commentary for CSIS on the ways in which security order in the Middle East has changed during Ira...
JD Vance decided to get his own unvarnished account of how the war is going from US commanders in th...
JD Vance decided to get his own unvarnished account of how the war is going from US commanders in the field. According @NYT what he "came away from some of his conversations with deep concerns about the overall strategy and the prospects for success, according to people who spoke to him. The assessments made clear the extraordinary amount of pain the Iranian government was prepared to endure in its fight for survival, and the limited supply of U.S. defensive weapons available to block Iran’s retaliatory strikes, or to deal with threats elsewhere." https://t.co/iQMBPXgoR6