Hal Brands warns that Iran’s nuclear weapons program nears completion while US diplomatic efforts to halt the program and reduce tensions have stalled. With American leaders lacking viable diplomatic options to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb, Brand says, “What happens next is intensified coercion.”

“Do social media platforms have civic responsibilities?” asks Christine Rosen in the latest report from AEI’s Digital Platforms and American Life project. As these platforms’ founders appeal to their civic duties, Rosen considers whether their behavior reflects such responsibilities.

In a new working paper, Mark Jamison presents an alternative to the consumer welfare standard currently at the center of the antitrust debate. Instead of considering mergers solely based on consumer price consequences, Jamison proposes that antitrust regulators should also target “the ability to avoid competitive pressure despite rivals offering greater efficiencies and greater value.”

According to Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) and AEI’s Vincent H. Smith, onerous US mandates on shipping impede the ability of our emergency food aid programs to address the international food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Risch and Smith say that repealing these mandates could increase the efficiency of much-needed international food aid programs without raising budgets.

Adam J. White surveys the obstacles to the CHIPS Act’s proper implementation. Chief among them, according to White, is a presidential administration determined to use “the most straightforward legislative initiative of the last two years” in service of unrelated Democratic policy priorities.