America’s War of Choice on Iran

73 snips

Mar 5, 2026

Guest

Richard Haass

Guest

Nate Swanson

Richard Haass, veteran foreign‑policy thinker and former State Department planner, and Nate Swanson, Iran strategy director and former NSC adviser, unpack the U.S.-Israeli strikes and Khamenei's death. They discuss Iran's retaliation choices, prospects for prolonged conflict, how U.S. Iran policy is made, failed negotiations, and the risks and aims of regime‑change strategies.

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INSIGHT

Iran Went Straight For Gulf Neighbors

Iran prioritized striking its Gulf neighbors and U.S. regional targets early rather than focusing mainly on Israel.
Swanson says Iran chose the 'soft underbelly'—closer, shorter-range targets—to impose tangible costs quickly after Khamenei's death.

ANECDOTE

Swanson Joined Trump's Negotiations As A Technical Team Member

Nate Swanson described his role joining the Trump negotiation team as a short-term, technical contributor rather than a policy architect.
He emphasized only a few negotiation meetings involved the whole team and policy decisions were driven at the highest levels.

INSIGHT

Top Down Decision Making With Heavy Outside Influence

Trump administration decision making is highly top-down with a small circle of advisors and heavy outside lobbying influence.
Swanson warns the president often accepts pitches from external figures like senators and media hosts, risking incomplete information flow.

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Over the weekend, U.S. and Israeli forces struck hundreds of sites across Iran and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Large crowds of Iranians took to the streets, some to mourn, others to celebrate. The Islamic Republic has retaliated and launched strikes of its own across the Middle East.

Much about the joint U.S.-Israeli operation remains unclear—was it meant to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities after failed negotiations? Was it meant to force regime change? With no path to de-escalation in sight, Washington may end up in a larger conflagration than it bargained for.

In this two-part episode, Executive Editor Justin Vogt spoke with two experts to help make sense of the situation.

First, Nate Swanson, the director of the Iran Strategy Project at the Atlantic Council and a former Iran policy adviser to the Trump and Biden administrations. He was director for Iran at the National Security Council between 2022 and 2025 and he served on the Trump administration’s Iran negotiating team in the spring and summer of 2025. Vogt spoke with him on Wednesday, March 4 about the situation on the ground in Iran, Iran’s strategy in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli attacks, and how Iran policy gets made in the Trump administration.

Then, Richard Haass, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. Toward the end of his long career in government, Haass served as the director of policy planning in the State Department during the George W. Bush administration, at a time when the United States was carrying out a war aimed at regime change in Afghanistan and planning another such war in Iraq. Vogt spoke with Haass on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 3, about the history of regime change operations and how the current war on Iran fits into it.

Both Swanson and Haass make clear that this is a watershed moment for the United States, Iran, and the Middle East more broadly.

You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.