“The Trump team’s approach rests on a cartoon of Obama’s policies, one those currently in power have invested years — and significant financial and political resources — constructing. Yet they have found it hard to reconcile their assertion that the nuclear agreement is the ‘worst deal ever’ with a viable plan to replace it. Instead, the best they can do is bluster and punt.”

“When Iran does act out again — which it will — we should not taunt Trump about being weak or bait him into acting militarily.”

“Derek Chollet of the German Marshall Fund argued the United States must deter Iran and reassure U.S. allies by maintaining a robust military presence in the region, planning a range of U.S. responses to destabilizing Iranian activities, and ensuring that U.S. forces have the weapons systems and personnel required for scenarios involving Iran.”

“The Trump administration needs to ensure that the nuclear agreement with Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—is strictly enforced and that the Iranian leadership understands that the international community will never accept an Iran with a nuclear weapons capability.”

“In the past 18 months, the United States and its NATO partners have continued to lift their game, bolstering their collective capabilities aligned against the Russian threat, increasing their defense resources and developing new initiatives to address NATO’s operational shortcomings.”

“This summit could have been a victory lap for the alliance. Instead, Trump’s antics — from his opening diatribe against Germany to his Thursday morning outburst about defense spending that sent leaders into a rare emergency session — left some allies asking whether the United States was on the verge of withdrawing from NATO.”

“The trans-Atlantic relationship will only get choppier in the coming months, with the congressional midterm elections as another inflection point.”

“From NATO to British politics, US media to the EU: almost nothing was left unscathed from Donald Trump's European trip - and that's a victory for Russia's Putin, Derek Chollet, senior advisor at the German Marshall Fund, tells DW.”

Stephen F. Cohen discusses Iran’s nuclear program and its relation to Russia.

Stephen F. Cohen argues, “Not surprisingly, Trump’s meetings with NATO and Putin are being portrayed as ominous events by Russiagaters.”

Stephen F. Cohen argues, “Since 1997, the world’s perhaps most powerful corporation and lobbyist has created more insecurity than security.”

Stephen F. Cohen pushes back against NATO expansion.

Stephen F. Cohen discusses the media frenzy surrounding the Helsinki summit.

Stephen F. Cohen argues that the real reason behind the new anti-Russian sanctions effort is “to thwart and even punish President Donald Trump for his policy of ‘cooperation with Russia.’ And Putin too for having met and cooperated with Trump at their Helsinki summit in July.”

Stephen F. Cohen argues, “With the new US-Russian Cold War fraught with possibilities of hot war on several fronts, from Ukraine and the Baltic and Black Sea regions to Syria, Trump had a vital national-security duty to meet in the most august way with Putin.”

Stephen F. Cohen argues, “Cooperation with Moscow remains vital for American national security, but ‘Russiagate’ allegations, now codified in a DNC lawsuit, are making that decades-long pursuit a crime.”

Stephen F. Cohen discusses the Helsinki summit.

Reuel Marc Gerecht argues, “Looking more closely at the past shows that a regime-collapse containment policy is the best way to effect change.”

Reuel Marc Gerecht argues, “The suggestion that going to war with the clerical regime is too high a price to pay to stop the mullahs from acquiring nuclear weapons (which is what’s implied by defending the limited, temporary utility of the JCPOA) is downright odd.”

Reuel Marc Gerecht argues, “The [Iran nuclear] deal's bad. I mean, it's as holey as Swiss cheese, as the Europeans, particularly the French, tried to point out during the negotiations. It has numerous large flaws.”

“Alone now, Washington has to be willing to play hardball with Tehran by insisting that it does have military options. But our primary task ought to be to squeeze the theocracy relentlessly.”

Reuel Marc Gerecht argues, “If Washington were serious about doing to Iran what it helped to do to the U.S.S.R, it would seek to weaken the theocracy by pressing it on all fronts. A crippling sanctions regime that punishes the regime for its human-rights abuses is a necessity.”

Reuel Marc Gerecht argues, “It is heartening to hear senior Italian and British officers attached to NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan affirm that they're planning on being there for 10 years, provided the locals want them.”

Reuel Marc Gerecht argues, “A Russian-American entente never made a lot of sense because of one overpowering fact: Russia and the Islamic Republic have deeply shared strategic interests that simply overwhelm the carrots and sticks that Washington can toss at Putin.”