Day: June 16, 2026

A Deal to Make a Deal Has Hawks on All Sides Terrified it Will Succeed

We begin with what we know about the latest ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran being touted as a peace deal, the details of which Trump is keeping secret until Friday’s signing in Geneva. Joining us is Matthew Petti, an assistant editor at Reason Magazine who has previously reported for the BBC (in Persian and English), The Intercept, The Daily Beast, New Lines magazine, Responsible Statecraft, Middle East Eye, and The National Interest, among other publications. He covers U.S. national security policy and its interactions with American society and domestic politics. We discuss his latest article at Reason, “The Iran War is Over, For Now: The U.S. and Iran have moved to the next stage of the peace process. Hawks on all sides are terrified that it will succeed.”

G-7 Leaders Bring Trump and Zelensky Together to Change the U.S. Role From Messenger Between Ukraine and Russia to Mediator That Makes Peace

Then we examine efforts by the G-7 heads of state at the summit underway in France to end the war in Ukraine by having Zelensky meet with Trump to try to change the U.S. role from a messenger between both sides to a mediator that supports rather than punishes Ukraine. Joining us is Charles Kupchan, who was director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. He is now a professor of International Affairs in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and also served as a Special Assistant to President Obama for National Security. He is the author of How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace, and his latest, Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World. He has a recent article at the Council on Foreign Relations, “Between Two Orders.“

The Iran War and the Future of American Empire and Is Trump Blowing a Chance to Make Peace in Ukraine?

Then finally we speak with Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow & director of military analysis at Defense Priorities where her research focuses on U.S. military strategy, force structure and defense budgeting, the defense industrial base, and U.S. military deployments and interventions. Previously, she was a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and she has an article at The American Conservative we discuss, “The Iran War and the Future of American Empire” and another at Responsible Statecraft “Trump is blowing his chance to make peace in Ukraine.”