In this wide-ranging conversation, Jacob Heilbrunn speaks with Daniel Runde (CSIS) about three major geopolitical arenas shaping today’s global landscape. From Iran and the strategic logic behind mounting pressure on the regime, to Gaza and the complex question of disarming Hamas and envisioning reconstruction, and finally to Cuba, where economic strain could trigger deeper political shifts, Runde offers a forward-looking analysis of instability and opportunity.
Spanning the Middle East and the Caribbean, the discussion examines how force, diplomacy, and long-term planning intersect in moments of potential transformation.
Daniel Runde on Iran, Gaza, and Cuba: Power, Pressure, and Political Change
by
February 2026
Recent Articles
What Do the Gulf States Really Want?
There is a question Washington should ask more directly: what do the Gulf states really want? The official language is familiar: de-escalation, sovereignty, dialogue, Palestinian rights, regional stability, and balanced relations. These are legitimate concerns. But behind the communiqués lies a harder reality. Gulf capitals know that Israel is no longer isolated. They know that […]
Iran: The Onion State
Understanding Iran requires moving beyond conventional analytical frameworks, which have too often led to strategic misreadings of the country’s complex system. In this in-depth analysis published in the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, Iranian-French author and filmmaker Raghu Kondori offers a powerful metaphor: that of an “onion state,” made up of successive layers of power, in which […]
Are we witnessing a JCPOA redux?
The greatest danger of the emerging deal is that it may throw the regime a political and economic lifeline at the very moment when it is most vulnerable The justification for the 40-days of war with Iran, in a large part, turns on the question of whether or not it will achieve a better result […]
