America’s War of Choice on Iran

About this episode

The episode discusses the recent U.S.-Israeli military actions in Iran and their implications.

Over the weekend, U.S. and Israeli forces struck hundreds of sites across Iran and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Large crowds of Iranians took to the streets, some to mourn, others to celebrate. The Islamic Republic has retaliated and launched strikes of its own across the Middle East. Much about the joint U.S.-Israeli operation remains unclear—was it meant to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities after failed negotiations? Was it meant to force regime change? With no path to de-escalation in sight, Washington may end up in a larger conflagration than it bargained for. In this two-part episode, Executive Editor Justin Vogt spoke with two experts to help make sense of the situation. First, Nate Swanson, the director of the Iran Strategy Project at the Atlantic Council and a former Iran policy adviser to the Trump and Biden administrations. He was director for Iran at the National Security Council between 2022 and 2025 and he served on the Trump administration’s Iran negotiating team in the spring and summer of 2025. Vogt spoke with him on Wednesday, March 4 about the situation on the ground in Iran, Iran’s strategy in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli attacks, and…

People in this episode

Host: Justin Vogt

Guests: Nate Swanson, Richard Haass

Topics covered

• U.S.-Iran relations
• military conflict
• Middle East politics
• nuclear strategy
• regime change
• foreign policy

Keywords

• Iran
• U.S.-Israel
• military strikes
• nuclear capabilities
• regime change
• foreign policy
• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Atlantic Council, Council on Foreign Relations

Places: Iran, United States, Israel

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