https://policymaker.net/tags/us-foreign-policy/ Recent content in US Foreign Policy on Policymaker.net Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://policymaker.net/2026/04/04/irans-long-game-vs.-trumps-clock/ Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://policymaker.net/2026/04/04/irans-long-game-vs.-trumps-clock/ Time is the real battlefield here. That is the core of the argument, and once you see it that way, a lot of Iran’s behavior starts to look less reactive and more deliberate. Iran does not need to defeat the United States in a conventional military sense to achieve a strategic result. It needs to drag the confrontation into a shape that the United States, and especially Donald Trump, finds politically, psychologically, and economically unsustainable. https://policymaker.net/2026/04/01/victory-lap-closed-strait-trump-signals-iran-exit-without-reopening-hormuz/ Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://policymaker.net/2026/04/01/victory-lap-closed-strait-trump-signals-iran-exit-without-reopening-hormuz/ The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that President Trump has told aides he is prepared to wind down the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran while leaving the Strait of Hormuz largely closed — deferring what he views as an operationally complex reopening mission to a later phase, or to allies. The calculation is blunt: forcing the strait open would push the conflict past his stated four-to-six-week timeline, and Trump has decided that isn’t a price he’s willing to pay. https://policymaker.net/2026/03/29/from-deterrence-to-momentum-the-logic-behind-the-largest-u.s.-middle-east-buildup-in-20-years/ Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://policymaker.net/2026/03/29/from-deterrence-to-momentum-the-logic-behind-the-largest-u.s.-middle-east-buildup-in-20-years/ The deployment of thousands of additional U.S. Marines into the Middle East is being framed as a deterrent measure, a stabilizing move intended to prevent further escalation. That framing, while technically correct, obscures a more consequential shift already underway. What is emerging is not a static posture designed to hold the line, but a dynamic configuration of forces that lowers the barrier to action. Deterrence, in this context, is blending into operational momentum. https://policymaker.net/2026/03/29/iran-is-building-the-coalition-against-itself/ Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://policymaker.net/2026/03/29/iran-is-building-the-coalition-against-itself/ There is a particular kind of strategic failure that is almost admirable in its consistency. Iran, in the weeks since February 28, has managed to accomplish what years of American diplomacy could not: convincing a fractured, mutually suspicious Middle East that it has a common enemy. It has done so not through miscalculation at the margins, but through a sustained, multi-front campaign that has struck neutrals, allies, and American assets with equal indifference.