Geopolitical Futures

(click to enlarge) Though oil prices have surged since the start of fighting in the Middle East, investors are still hopeful that the war will resemble last year’s 12-day Israel-Iran...

Replenishing stocks. The Pentagon is reportedly planning to request funds from Congress to replenish munitions used against Iran. Missiles for the Patriot and THAAD air defense systems will be...

Fighting spreads to the Caucasus. Iranian drones struck the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan on Thursday. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense said unmanned aerial vehicles from neighboring Iran targeted the region's...

Opposition groups. The CIA is reportedly working to arm Kurdish forces in the hopes of inspiring a popular uprising against the Iranian government. According to a report by CNN,...

Shipping disruption. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced Monday that the Strait of Hormuz is closed. An adviser to the IRGC commander-in-chief said the IRGC and Iran’s regular navy...

The ongoing US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which began over the weekend, come after a protracted period of tension, negotiations and military build-up. Tehran has now said it will attack U.S. assets in the region in response to the U.S. and Israeli strikes, which killed several top Iranian officials and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. So why, in a world where the U.S. is trying to withdraw from anything outside the Western Hemisphere, does the U.S. still care about Iran? Talking Geopolitics host Christian Smith is joined by GPF Chairman George Friedman to discuss how we got here, intelligence failures, and the future of the Iranian regime, which could look quite different or remain just a new version of the same.