Tehran’s Fight for Great-Power Status; Ukraine Can Turn Imminent Peril to Its Advantage; The Global AI Bust
Foreign Affairs This Week

October 16, 2026 | View in Browser | Sponsored by America in the World Consortium

 

This week’s highlights:

- Iran’s Theory of Victory by Narges Bajoghli and Vali Nasr

- Ukraine Can Turn Imminent Peril to Its Advantage by Eric Ciaramella

- The Global AI Bust by Ruchir Sharma

- America Shouldn’t Let Go of the Middle East by Philip H. Gordon

- Podcast: Ali Vaez and Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar discuss the stalemate in Iran

- A Democratic Reckoning in India by Pratap Bhanu Mehta

- Trump Is Gutting America’s Core Geopolitical Advantage by Robert B. Zoellick

 

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A banner of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Tehran, September 2026

Iran’s Theory of Victory

Tehran’s Fight for Great-Power Status in the Post-American Middle East

By Narges Bajoghli and Vali Nasr

 
A gas station hit by a Russian drone strike, Kyiv, Ukraine, September 2026 

Ukraine Can Turn Imminent Peril to Its Advantage

How a True “Energy Cease-Fire” Can Curb Putin

By Eric Ciaramella

 

The Global AI Bust

What Will Survive When the Boom Ends

By Ruchir Sharma

 
U.S. Navy sailors loading munitions onto a fighter jet in the Arabian Sea, September 2026

America Shouldn’t Let Go of the Middle East

Why Disengagement Is Not the Answer

By Philip H. Gordon

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