Trump’s War Has Brought American Strategy to a Dead End; The Future of Ukraine’s Drone Democracy; How China Found Its Most Potent Weapon
Foreign Affairs This Week

August 28, 2026 | View in Browser | Sponsored by RAND School of Public Policy

 

This week’s highlights:

- Maximum Pressure on Iran Will Fail by Nate Swanson

- The Future of Ukraine’s Drone Democracy by Nataliya Gumenyuk

- How China Found Its Most Potent Weapon by Gloria Xiong and Jessica Chen Weiss

- America’s Missing Military Revolution by Doug Beck

- Podcast: Laurel Miller and Graeme Smith discuss Afghanistan after America

- The New Right’s Grand Strategy After Trump by Leonard A. Schuette

- India Is Sticking With America—for Now by C. Raja Mohan

 

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An anti-American billboard in Tehran, August 2026 

Maximum Pressure on Iran Will Fail

Trump’s War Has Brought American Strategy to a Dead End

By Nate Swanson

 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine, August 2026

The Future of Ukraine’s Drone Democracy

Transforming the Military Has Changed the War—and Upended Politics

By Nataliya Gumenyuk

 
A rare-earth processing plant in Ganzhou, China, November 2025

How China Found Its Most Potent Weapon

The Real History of Beijing’s Rare-Earth Dominance

By Gloria Xiong and Jessica Chen Weiss

 

America’s Missing Military Revolution

Why Washington Still Risks Losing the Tech Race

By Doug Beck

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