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Weekend Reads

Iran and the Path Forward: Trump Should Embrace His Leverage and Pursue Peace Through Strength [[link removed]]

President Donald Trump has demonstrated that he is willing to use force to compel the Iranian regime to end its reign of terror and give up its nuclear ambitions for good. In a new Hudson policy memo, Rebeccah L. Heinrichs [[link removed]] outlines how President Trump can embrace this leverage and decisively pursue peace through strength.

Read the key insight below, or the full policy memo here. [[link removed]]

Key Insights

1. Washington faces an obstacle in negotiations because Iranian political leaders cannot control the IRGC.

Operation Epic Fury successfully disrupted Iranian command-and-control structures, but it stopped short of eliminating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) apparatus. This fragmentation creates a fundamental problem for diplomacy: Tehran’s political leadership may offer assurances it cannot enforce.

2. The US should insist on the permanent dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear program.

Agreements built on Iranian self-restraint and good faith have repeatedly collapsed under pressure. The United States should pursue either a rigorous, internationally supervised dismantlement process or, if necessary, military measures that permanently entomb the material and deny Tehran any future path to weaponization.

3. The White House needs to use its leverage to achieve strategic gains.

To convert military success into lasting strategic advantage, Washington should sustain maximum pressure, resume Project Freedom, reject interim arrangements that offer Iran economic relief while it remains a threat to US interests, build a functioning coalition by securing European contributions and encouraging deeper cooperation from Gulf states, and communicate clearly to the American public why sustained pressure on Iran serves core US interests.

Read the policy memo here. [[link removed]]

Quotes may be edited for clarity and length.

Go Deeper

This Is How the Iran War Ends [[link removed]]

As the White House negotiates with Iran, President Donald Trump faces criticism from Republicans who fear the United States is retreating, and from Democrats who depict diplomatic efforts as an admission of the war’s futility. In The Free Press [[link removed]], Michael Doran [[link removed]] says both sides misrepresent the strategic logic of the moment.

More from Hudson Institute [[link removed]]

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