Cosmopolitics by Elise Labott

Three decades covering foreign policy has taught me one thing: the story is almost never as simple as your side wants it to be. That’s why I call balls and strikes without keeping score. That means you get reporting and analysis that makes partisans on both sides a little uncomfortable. Clear-eyed, fact-based, and beholden to no one. If that’s the kind of coverage you want to read- I hope you will...

More than five billion people are expected to watch some part of the 2026 World Cup. In much of the world, soccer is more than a sport. It is identity, nationalism, and, for some, something approaching religion. Which is why veteran foreign correspondent Conor Powell spent years investigating the people who control it. He joined me Tuesday to discuss before the start of the tournament. What began...

If you’re trying to follow the current state of the Iran war without losing your mind, retired military officers, former officials or Washington journalists are probably not the people to call. You call Arash Azizi . Because while Washington is busy arguing over whether a naval skirmish in the Strait of Hormuz counts as a ceasefire violation, a “love tap,” or the opening act of World War III, Aras...

Iran, Lebanon, the King’s speech, the WHCD shooting and more…. Danielle Pletka and I are back in full force! Join us TODAY at 5:30 ET for some cocktails and what promises to be a lively discussion. We had an audio glitch at the very end of the last question, but by then the essential point was clear: Lebanon is not just another front in the Iran war. It is where that war’s contradictions are most...

Lebanon is having a moment, people! After decades of successive government failures, Hezbollah’s stranglehold on the country, and Iran pulling the strings of its very own “Party of God” terrorist army — complete with missiles tucked behind hospitals and under UN posts — there may finally be a window. Trump picked up the phone, brokered a ceasefire (for now), and told Netanyahu and Lebanon’s new pr...

Seven weeks in, the war with Iran has morphed into an economic game of chicken — with a side order of nuclear negotiation. Having failed to get Iran to capitulate on the battlefield, the United States is now trying to squeeze Tehran into submission financially. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week called the naval blockade “the financial equivalent of the bombing campaign.” Iran’s answer was...

For a brief moment Tuesday night, it looked like the Iran war might end the way it had unfolded — abruptly, ambiguously, and with more questions than answers. After a day of escalating threats — including a warning from President Trump that “a whole civilization” could be wiped out — the United States and Iran agreed to an 11th-hour cease-fire. The deal, brokered through intermediaries including P...

If you didn’t catch my Substack Live with Nancy Youssef , here is the recording. Nancy has covered wars in the Middle East for two decades. While she brings encyclopedic knowledge of the region and the U.S. military from her years at the Pentagon, she notes that the war in Iran is unlike any she has covered - in large part because of the Trump administration’s tight control over information coming...

As a former Assistant Secretary of State and senior military officer who served in Iraq and at CENTCOM, he has watched campaigns that looked decisive on paper but far less so in practice — wars where early battlefield success masked a much harder question: what comes next? That’s why it was worth talking to him this week, at a moment when the conversation around the war with Iran is increasingly d...

Is the war eliminating the dead wood in the Iranian regime? If the regime survives — and survival, in some form, remains likely — it may not be the same regime that went in. A different generation could emerge from the wreckage, and there’s no guarantee it will be a more moderate one. The scenario that should keep policymakers up at night is an Iran run by IRGC hardliners who are no longer constra...

If you haven’t caught my Substack Live with Arash Azizi , here is the recording. I really enjoyed this conversation and I think you will too. In Washington and much of the media, the war is framed through the lens of US decision-making: what President Trump wants, what he might accept, what comes next. That focus obscures something more fundamental — Iran is not simply reacting. It is making its o...

Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman is one of the few Americans ever to have met Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - a surreal encounter he experienced as a top UN diplomat accompanying Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Tehran in 2012. As he told us in our conversation, he was struck by how little Khamenei actually understood about the United States. America’s picture of Iran may have its ga...

Wars are fought with bombs and missiles. But they are also fought with narratives - the explanations leaders give their citizens about why a conflict is necessary, what success looks like, and what sacrifices may be required. That was the focus of my conversation Emily Horne , founder of Allegro Public Affairs and author of the Substack Spin Class . Horne spent more than two decades in national se...

Folks: forgive me - I sent out the recording of the discussion with Dany - but meant to send this out. Dany will send her version of the recordings with show notes later, which I will forward in the chat. Sorry for the spam. Look forward to seeing you all tomorrow for some more important Iran discussions. If you missed my conversation with veteran Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, you can watc...

If you didn’t catch my live conversation with Larry Diamond of Stanford University, here’s the recording. I encourage you to listen in full. Larry has spent his career studying how democracies die. He’s watched authoritarianism creep into Venezuela, Turkey, Hungary, and India. Now he’s applying that same analytical lens to the United States . Nobody wants to think of America in that light. But Lar...

Yesterday’s conversation with Steven A. Cook drew the biggest turnout we’ve had yet! So many familiar faces and so many new ones. Smart questions, sharp pushback. The kind of crowd that reminds me why we started Cosmopolitics in the first place - to slow the news cycle down just enough to actually think. If you haven’t already, subscribe and join us. This community only works because you show up....

If you missed my conversation with former Undersecretary Tom Shannon, here’s the recording. It’s essential viewing for anyone trying to make sense of President Trump’s strategy for the Western Hemisphere. Tom’s insights come from decades serving at the highest levels of government on regional issues in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Tom sees Trump’s second-term foreign policy as a...

If you missed my conversation with former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder here’s the recording. Ivo walks through the strategic importance of the Arctic, how Greenland fits in and why cooperation with NATO strengthen’s US security in the region. My take is below. Cosmopolitics depends on reader support. If you value serious foreign affairs journalism and interviews with guests like Ivo, please c...

Folks: If you missed my conversation with former US envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams , I encourage you to watch the recording. Elliot’s knowledge and insights bring essential context and nuance to this complex story. I write more about how the administration’s strategy, or lack thereof, will impact the region well beyond Trump’s term in the post below. Tomorrow I will discuss the administration’s...

It was great to see so many of you on Monday for our year-end show . Danielle Pletka and love our #HTHH community! If you weren’t able to catch us live, here is the full recording…best watched with a strong cocktail. Look for more Hot Takes in 2026. In addition to our weekly news roundups, we’ll come to you with more analysis of breaking news and deeper dives on hot-button issues. We don’t have re...

Always great to see you all: Dany has assembled some good reading material (links below about the debate over whether Congress has the sole power to declare war when it comes to Venezuela, as well as some objections to the President’s military campaign - including from conservatives -that are worth reading. Here’s a nice little outtake from an analysis by the Constitution Center In modern times, h...

I love talking with my friend and former CNN colleague Barbara Starr . Few journalists can cut through the noise to focus on what truly matters like she can - and this conversation was no exception. If you weren’t able to watch live, check out the recording. Barbara broke down the US military campaign in the Caribbean and the potential drain a long deployment could place on the force. She spoke to...

For those of you who didn’t catch my live conversation with Steven A. Cook , here is the recording. As always, Steven’s insights on Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s visit to Washington, and the evolution of US-Saudi relationship were sharp, thoughtful, and essential for anyone looking to understand the transformation of the Gulf. Thank you GG Haegelin , lotta kuylenstjerna , Hava Salita , BCz ,...

Dany and I covered a lot of ground this week. We discussed this week’s elections and Democratic victories, including Zoran Mamdani’s win; the Supreme Court’s deliberations on President Trump’s tariffs and his meeting with Chinese President Xi; Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that she won’t seek re-election; and the Heritage Foundation’s disturbing reaction to antisemitism among Republicans like Nick F...

Friends: Sorry I am sending out our recording and show notes later than usual - I’ve been traveling the last few days. Last week Trump finally discovered the sanctions button. After months of playing footsie with Putin while Europe nervously chain-smoked cigarettes in the corner, Trump concluded that “good conversations that don’t go anywhere” was in fact Putin’s way of blowing off his efforts to...