The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie How the Iran War Could Backfire
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Apr 15, 2026 
Emma Ashford, foreign policy analyst and Stimson Center senior fellow, and Georgetown adjunct professor. She dissects unclear U.S. objectives in the Iran war. She explores Iran’s leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, timing pressures that led to conflict, and limits of bombing-only strategies. She also debates post–Cold War continuities in American grand strategy.
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Quick Strikes Still Entangle the U.S.
- Trump's anti-quagmire rhetoric masks a preference for quick, coercive strikes rather than prolonged occupations, which can still entangle the U.S. when adversaries 'get a vote.'
- Ashford argues Trump believes force can be used without long commitments, but Iran showed the limits of that theory.
Post–Cold War U.S. Strategy Became Transformative
- The post–Cold War era marked a strategic shift from containment to transformative, forward-leaning U.S. policies aimed at reshaping other countries.
- Ashford calls this shift a catalyst for many unpopular, costly interventions and a key feature of the 1990s onward.
Lack Of Great Power Constraints Enabled U.S. Interventions
- The end of great-power constraints after 1991 enabled U.S. freedom to intervene, exemplified by actions in the Balkans where Russia couldn't effectively stop U.S. moves.
- Ashford recounts Russia's failed attempt to interpose paratroopers at Pristina as evidence.
