The Strategy Gap in Iran, With Max Boot
From The President’s Inbox by Council on Foreign Relations
March 18, 2026 · 34 min
About this episode
Max Boot discusses tactical and strategic lessons from military operations against Iran.
Max Boot, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council, sits down with James M. Lindsay to analyze what tactical and strategic lessons can be drawn from the U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran. Mentioned on the Episode: Alexander Ward, Lara Seligman, Alex Leary, and Vera Bergengruen, "Trump Knew the Risk of Iran Blocking the Strait of Hormuz. He Still Went to War," Wall Street Journal Hugo Lowell, "U.S. Only Has 25% of All Patriot Missile Interceptors Needed for Pentagon’s Military Plans," The Guardian Seth Jones, "Empty Bins in a Wartime Environment: The Challenge to the U.S. Defense Industrial Base," Center for Strategic and International Studies For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/the-strategy-gap-in-iran Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or our guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.
People in this episode
Host: James M. Lindsay
Guest: Max Boot
Topics covered
- Iran
- U.S. military operations
- Israeli military operations
- national security
- defense industrial base
Keywords
- Iran
- military operations
- national security
- U.S. defense
- Israel
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Council on Foreign Relations, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Books & works: Trump Knew the Risk of Iran Blocking the Strait of Hormuz. He Still Went to War, U.S. Only Has 25% of All Patriot Missile Interceptors Needed for Pentagon’s Military Plans, Empty Bins in a Wartime Environment: The Challenge to the U.S. Defense Industrial Base
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