Explaining America’s Trade Policy

While much of the world has welcomed news of a fragile cease-fire in the Middle East, one group feels the White House pulled out too soon: Iran hawks. John Bolton argues that the administration should have used its military momentum to not only secure maritime trade but also to, once and for all, take out the Iranian regime. Bolton served as national security advisor in the first Trump administration before falling out with the president. Bolton joined FP’s Ravi Agrawal, who has argued Trump is losing the war, for a debate.

The United States has become the world’s largest producer of both crude oil and natural gas, giving the White House a strong set of cards as it thinks about its foreign policy. But even so, Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is driving up the global price of oil, which also hurts U.S. consumers. Why is energy becoming a foreign-policy cudgel, and what can countries do to protect against it? Meghan L. O’Sullivan, author of Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power, joined FP Live’s Ravi Agrawal to discuss how countries should think about the energy shock caused by the war in Iran.

As Israel and the United States continue to pummel targets across Iran and assassinate top leaders, how is the Islamic Republic’s remaining brain trust thinking about its future? How does it define success from this point? What do we know about the views of its next generation of leaders? And what does that portend for the future of the region? FP’s Ravi Agrawal sat down with Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the Crisis Group, to explore how Tehran will navigate the next few days and weeks of war.

Energy prices have shot up following an Iranian strike on a crucial gas field in Qatar, in addition to Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iranian oil infrastructure and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. How high could energy prices get, and for how long? Even if the war ends, what would it take for normal service to resume and the global energy shock to subside? Jason Bordoff, the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy, joined FP Live to explore the dynamics shaping the energy markets.