What Caught My Eye (no. 51)

Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week

Here’s this week’s edition of articles I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.

The Iran War

Before diving into this week’s reads, a few thoughts on the US-Israeli strikes against Iran. There is a lot to read, watch, listen to, and digest—too much to list. You can read my initial thoughts upon hearing the war had started here. In addition, a few things about the run-up to the war and its possible aftermath that struck me as particularly noteworthy:

• Even though Iran last June was caught off guard by Israeli intelligence’s deep penetration of its leadership, the Iranian regime appears to have assumed it had solved the issue. On Saturday morning, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini and top security aids gathered in his compound. The CIA and Mossad, according to the New York Times and other reports, had tracked his movement, knew who was in the compound, and accelerated the timeline for the strikes.

• While Saudi Arabia closed its airspace to US and Israeli planes for the attack against Iran, the Washington Post reports that its de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, urged President Trump to launch the strikes since Iran was weaker than ever and the regime vulnerable to attack.

• Top administration officials have said Iran was never serious about reaching a deal curtailing its nuclear program in talks with the United States. There’s been a lot of skepticism of that claim, including by Oman’s foreign minister who mediated the talks. But the Wall Street Journal reports that Tehran’s latest proposal “would have left Iran with thousands of advanced centrifuges and permitted Iran to enrich uranium as much as 20%.” That would have been more than even under the 2015 nuclear deal.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio, briefing the congressional “Gang of Eight” earlier in the week that Israel was going to strike Iran “with or without the United States.", according to the Washington Post.

• A lot of commentaries has focused on the question why Trump decided now, especially since few buy the argument that Iran posed an “imminent threat,” as the president claimed. But now that the war has started, the bigger question is not “why now,” but “what now.” The Supreme Leader is dead. But the regime is still very much alive. The New York Times reported earlier that Iran had planned for succession throughout its ranks, suggesting a focus on regime revival well beyond the Supreme Leader. And the Wall Street Journal took a deep look at the strength of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and how it could well come to dominate Iran for years to come. Wars, it’s well to remember, are far easier to start than to end.

This Week’s Reads

• Martin Sandbu, “It Is Time for Europe to Weaponise Its Chokepoints,” Financial Times, February 22, 2026. Sandbu, the FT’s European economics commentator, argues that Europe must begin leveraging its own economic “chokepoints” to strengthen geopolitical power. While Europeans have grown alarmed at their dependence on China, Russia, and now the United States, he contends that the EU also controls critical supply chains, from advanced semiconductor technologies like ASML’s lithography machines to pharmaceuticals, uranium, and industrial machinery, that others rely on heavily. Rather than merely insulating itself from coercion, Europe should lower the threshold for deploying tools such as its anti-coercion instrument and coordinate more closely with the UK to deter or counter external pressure. He concludes that mapping these sources of leverage is only the first step; Europe must also cultivate the political will to use them assertively.

• Ben Casselman, “Trump’s Challenge to Free Market Capitalism,” The New York Times, February 22, 2026. Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for the Times, argues that President Trump’s second-term economic policies mark a sharp break from traditional Republican free-market orthodoxy, as the administration increasingly intervenes directly in private industry through ownership stakes, dealmaking, tariffs, and regulatory pressure. Unlike earlier industrial-policy efforts under both parties, Trump’s approach is highly transactional and personalized, often blurring the line between public policy and private leverage. Economists across the spectrum question whether this amounts to state capitalism, cronyism, or simply centralized executive power untethered from coherent strategy.

• Farnaz Fassihi, “Inside Iran’s Preparations for War and Plans for Survival,” The New York Times, February 22, 2026. Fassihi, the Times’ UN bureau chief, reports that as the threat of U.S. military action loomed, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, effectively handed day-to-day crisis management to Ali Larijani, the powerful head of the Supreme National Security Council. Larijani is overseeing war preparations, nuclear negotiations, internal security crackdowns, and contingency plans for leadership succession in case of assassination or major strikes. Iran has elevated its military alert level, repositioned missile launchers, and prepared domestic security forces to suppress unrest during a potential conflict.

• Dario Amodei, “The Adolescence of Technology: Confronting and Overcoming the Risks of Powerful AI,” January 2026. Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, argues that humanity is entering a “technological adolescence” as powerful AI rapidly approaches or surpasses human capabilities across nearly all domains. He outlines five major categories of risk: autonomous AI systems acting against human interests; misuse of AI for mass destruction; misuse of AI for the concentration of power by authoritarian states or corporations; severe economic disruption and labor displacement; and destabilizing indirect societal effects. He contends that the risks are real and imminent, requiring coordinated action including stronger AI alignment techniques, interpretability research, transparency laws, export controls, biological safeguards, and democratic oversight.

• Ibrahim Naber, “What happened after Elon Musk took the Russian army offline,” POLITICO, February 25, 2026. Naber, a German reporter and war correspondent, reports that SpaceX’s early February move to require verification of Starlink terminals abruptly cut off Russian forces in occupied Ukraine from satellite internet they had come to rely on for drone operations, artillery coordination, and frontline communication. Intercepted Russian radio transmissions captured confusion and frustration as units lost connectivity, forcing them to revert to slower, more vulnerable radio systems. The episode highlights both Russia’s growing dependence on Western technology and the strategic leverage private tech can exert on the battlefield.

• Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, and Haley Britzky, “Balancing act: Top general tries to avoid conflict with Trump while preparing for possible war with Iran,” CNN, February 25, 2026. The article reports that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine is quietly drafting military options for potential strikes on Iran while privately warning of the risks and complexities involved. At the same time, he is carefully avoiding public clashes with President Trump, determined not to repeat the confrontational dynamic between Trump and former Chairman Mark Milley. Caine has helped assemble a major U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, even as he raises concerns internally about escalation and casualties, reflecting a delicate effort to provide candid advice without alienating the president.

• Robert Kagan, “We Are Watching a Country Fall Under Dictatorship Almost Without Resistance,” Der Spiegel Substack, February 20, 2026. In this interview with Kagan, a historian, columnist, and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; he argues that the U.S. is losing its traditional system of checks and balances. He warns that very few Americans are recognizing this shift towards authoritarianism and that it will usher in the most dangerous global era since 1945.

• David Wallace-Wells, “An Orphan Revolution,” The New York Times, February 25, 2026. Wallace-Wells argues that despite political backlash and fading climate rhetoric, the global clean energy transition is accelerating rapidly. In 2024, over 90 percent of new global power capacity was renewable, electric vehicle sales continue to surge, and even developing economies are expanding solar at record rates. China’s emissions appear to have peaked, and India is transitioning away from coal earlier in its development path than expected. While emissions are still rising globally and warming is accelerating, the shift toward green energy is being driven less by politics and more by economics and technological momentum.

• Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson, “Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 25, 2026. The U.S. experienced net negative migration in 2025, with more people leaving than arriving, driven not only by deportations but by record numbers of American citizens relocating abroad. Data from dozens of countries show Americans moving in growing numbers to Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia, drawn by lower living costs, affordable healthcare, remote work flexibility, and dissatisfaction with U.S. politics and social conditions. Electric nomads, retirees, families, and students are fueling housing booms in places like Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Albania. Although some see this as a reflection of America’s economic strength, with high salaries enabling mobility, others view it as a sign of eroding faith in the American model. The trend raises questions about whether the U.S., long defined by immigration, is entering an era of sustained emigration.

Finally, in case you missed it here are links to some of the things I did and wrote this week.

• I wrote in America Abroad on Trump’s campaign of war, most recently in Iran.

• Finally, this week’s World Review focused on the War in Ukraine, Trump’s tariff escalation, and Cuba’s political future.

Happy reading, watching, and listening! Stay safe and stay warm.