Foreign Policy Focus from The Libertarian Institute

A war launched with shifting reasons and sliding timelines is a warning sign, not a strategy. We sit down with former Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski to examine how the U.S.–Iran confrontation veered from consent to chaos in days: bungled evacuations, brittle base defenses, and a communications vacuum that can’t cover for poor planning. Karen draws a sharp line from the Iraq playbook—months of theater...

War rarely begins with a single decision; it grows from motives, misreads, and momentum. We sit down with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson to map how a promised era of “no new wars” gave way to a high-stakes confrontation with Iran that could redraw the strategic landscape. He unpacks an unsettling mix of incentives—profit for well-connected investors, donor appeasement, and domestic distraction—that, l...

Sirens don’t always sound before a war—sometimes the warning is a bland memo telling diplomats to pack. We open with the U.S. pullback of non‑emergency staff from Israel and track how similar moves in Lebanon and likely elsewhere signal more than routine caution. From there, we map the fault lines in the Iran talks: Oman’s shuttle diplomacy, Tehran’s offer to dilute 60 percent uranium in exchange...

A quiet leak says the loud part: some senior voices in Washington think the politics “work better” if Israel strikes Iran first. Not because it changes the threat. Because it changes the story Americans hear. We pull that thread and walk through the actual mechanics of how a regional spark becomes a U.S. war—and how the talking points are already scripted to sell it as defense, not regime change....

A journalist gets detained. Carriers surge toward the Gulf. Politicians talk in slogans while the facts stay fuzzy. We connect these threads to show how U.S. power, Israeli interests, and media narratives are steering Washington toward a dangerous collision with Iran without a clear mandate or honest case. We start with the reported detention of Tucker Carlson in Israel and the curious U.S. respon...

A wall of U.S. air and naval power now sits within reach of Iran, but does massed hardware equal a winning strategy? We sit down with Colonel Douglas Macgregor to map the real shape of a campaign: suppressing integrated air defenses, cracking command-and-control, and hunting Iran’s theater ballistic missiles before they launch. The outline sounds familiar; the context does not. Iran fields depth,...

PROF. Mohammad Marandi joins Kyle live from Moscow. His Internet connection is a little sketchy but the audio is fine. Be sure to comment to help us with the YT algorithm. What if the real battlefield isn’t a border but a bottleneck? We sit down with Professor Mohammad Marandi to examine how Iran calculates risk, leverage, and legitimacy across a map defined as much by energy corridors as by milit...

Headlines keep colliding: sudden airspace closures, a foreign leader urging new wars, and a deluge of Epstein revelations that raise more questions than answers. We cut through the noise to map the pattern—who benefits from distraction, why certain names stay hidden, and how selective secrecy corrodes the rule of law and our shared sense of justice. With Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, we examine the...

What happens when a “surgical strike” meets a country that’s spent years hardening its air defenses, extending missile range, and practicing asymmetric warfare? We sit down with Larry Johnson to test the myths, map the ranges, and weigh what a U.S. or Israeli hit on Iran would truly unleash. From carrier standoff distances and Tomahawk limits to GPS disruption and Russian-made air defenses, we bre...

Headlines shifted by the hour, but the stakes stayed high. We start with the last U.S.-Russia arms control guardrail, New START, and ask a simple question with massive consequences: extend the treaty and keep limits plus inspections alive, or gamble everything on a brand-new deal that tries to rope in China. We break down why a percentage-based framework is the only way Beijing would ever talk, an...

A single clip can reveal the whole playbook. When a powerful senator calls military aid to Israel his “baby,” it says everything about priorities, leverage, and who pays the price. We pull the thread from that moment into the reality on the ground in Gaza, where a supposed ceasefire overlaps with daily killings and a systematic assault on healthcare. Detained physicians describe torture and maimin...

War planners love simple stories. Threaten, strike, and watch a “decisive” blow topple a hated regime. Today we peel back the layers on the rush toward Iran—what a decisive strike actually means, what the timelines look like from the Pentagon and Tel Aviv, and why air defenses are being surged across the Middle East. We connect the dots between public threats, carrier deployments, and leaked brief...

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:   US forces conducted live-fire military drills in the Persian Gulf. The exercise happened as President Donald Trump is threatening to attack Iran. “Last week, Navy Sailors from USS Santa Barbara participated in the exercise Killer Tomato, a live-fire maritime gunnery exercise conducted in the Central Command’s area of responsibility and suppo...

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to travel to the US to meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday. The discussion will center on Iran. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump this Wednesday in Washington, and will discuss with him the negotiations with Iran,” a statement...

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:   The Kremlin said US and Russian officials agreed that talks to establish a new nuclear arms control agreement must begin as soon as possible. Last week, the New START Treaty, the last remaining bilateral nuclear agreement, expired.  “There is an understanding, and they talked about it in Abu Dhabi, that both parties will take responsible pos...

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:   President Donald Trump said that the US was engaging with Cuba, and called for the country to be made “free again.” “We’re starting to talk to Cuba,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday. “It doesn’t have to be a humanitarian crisis. I think they probably would come to us and want to make a deal. So Cuba would be free again....

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:   Israel has banned Doctors Without Borders (MSF) from conducting humanitarian missions in Gaza. MSF has helped to keep the battered healthcare system at a minimal functioning level.  On Sunday , Tel Aviv announced that MSF would no longer be allowed to operate in Gaza. Israeli agencies claimed the humanitarian aid organization failed to provi...

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:   The US is positioning its most advanced missile interceptors in the Middle East to prepare for a major war with Iran.  According to the Wall Street Journal , the US is moving THAAD and Patriot interceptors into the Middle East. The air defenses will be sent to bases where US troops are stationed in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and...

Greenland on the table, NATO on edge, and an algorithm deciding who gets a knock at the door. We dive into President Trump’s Davos remarks claiming the U.S. will pursue Greenland, then trace the fallout across European capitals as Denmark draws a hard line on sovereignty and lawmakers move to unwind trade ties. If Greenland is already protected by NATO, what problem is “acquisition” solving—and at...

A letter about the Nobel Peace Prize. A claim that America needs “complete and total control of Greenland.” And a war that almost started, then didn’t. We follow the thread from ego-driven spectacle to real-world consequences, unpacking how image-making can bend strategy and endanger lives. We begin with the Greenland fixation and why it fails every basic test of strategy. Greenland is already pro...

A president on camera says only his own morality can stop him. That single line sets the tone for a high-stakes hour where we track real-time war signals around Iran, interrogate the Greenland fantasy, and examine how power bends rules when no one close is willing to say no. We connect the dots between rhetoric, logistics, and escalating options—from sanctions and cyber operations to reports of po...

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:   In an effort to quell concerns that US bombs would soon be falling on Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum said she received assurance from Washington that there would be no military flights over Mexico. On Monday, Sheinbaum  explained  she had received “written” assurance from the US that no military flights would take place over Mexico. She...

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:   A call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced President Donald Trump not to order an attack on Iran last week. Netanyahu was concerned that the attack would not be decisive, and Israel would be unable to repel an Iranian counterattack without more American military support. On Wednesday, American diplomats and military offi...

Missed signals are costly; misplaced confidence is worse. We open by unpacking the concrete indicators that war planners watch—carrier deployments, airspace changes, and last‑minute strike deliberations—and what they tell us about the real likelihood of a U.S. hit on Iran. From there, the conversation widens to a quieter battlefield: development frameworks that trade normalization for access. Our...

What happens when war becomes a market and foreign policy turns into an odds board? We dive into the uneasy world of prediction platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, where traders place bets on battlefield maps, covert raids, and even the exact words politicians will say. With researcher Nick Cleveland Stout from the Quincy Institute, we unpack how a briefly altered Ukraine map preceded a major pa...