What Caught My Eye (no. 58)
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.
David J. Lynch, “China, Iran weaponized the global economy to beat the U.S. at its own game,” The Washington Post, April 12, 2026. Lynch argues that Washington no longer has a monopoly on economic coercion: China used its grip on rare earths, and Iran used the Strait of Hormuz to show that interdependence can now be turned against the United States. The post-Cold War assumption of benign integration has broken down. Instead, globalization has created a world of mutual choke points, not simply American leverage. The article grounds that shift in concrete supply-chain effects, tracing how disruptions in energy and shipping feed into higher costs for fuel, fertilizer, plastics, packaging, and food. Going forward, states will try to increase domestic capacity, build redundancy, and alternative routes, rather than restoring the old world order.
Lawrence Freedman, “The causes and consequences of Trump’s defeat,” Comment is Freed Substack, April 12, 2026. Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, treats the failed Islamabad talks as proof that the administration has failed to achieve its central aims in Iran: the regime survived, the nuclear issue remains unresolved, and the world economy has suffered lasting damage. He argues that the failure followed a familiar pattern, with Trump seduced by the promise of decisive early blows but failing to articulate a clear strategy. The essay insists that wars are easier to start than to end, and that hurting the enemy is not the same thing as getting closer to one’s political objectives. The larger lesson is about the limits of military power when it is not anchored in realistic ends and a credible plan for how the war is supposed to conclude.
Sheera Frenkel, Paul Mozur and Adam Satariano, “Mutually Automated Destruction: The Escalating Global A.I. Arms Race,” The New York Times, April 12, 2026. The race between the US and China to develop autonomous drones is accelerating. Following a Chinese military parade last September that featured several advanced autonomous systems, US drone manufacturer Anduril has sped up production. But this is no longer just a race between the US and China. Ukraine has increasingly become a testing ground for new drone technologies, blurring the lines between development and deployment. The authors warn that as these systems become more advanced, traditional deterrence may no longer hold if autonomous systems move faster than human judgment, increasing the risk of accidental escalation.
Dion Nissenbaum, “The Man Who Shaped Washington’s View of the Middle East,” Foreign Policy, April 9, 2026. In this article, Nissenbaum outlines the influence of Brett McGurk, who served as Middle East Advisor to four presidential administrations. As the architect of Iraq’s democratic government, the campaign against ISIS, and the response to October 7, his name is synonymous with US policy towards the region. McGurk is both cause and symbol: a highly capable operator whose career captures the strengths and failures of bipartisan U.S. Middle East policy, and whose influence is likely to endure.
Ryan McMorrow, Sam Fleming, Peter Foster and Joe Leahy, “China shock 2.0: the flood of high-tech goods that will change the world,” Financial Times, April 14, 2026. The authors warn that the second China shock is more threatening than the first, with high-end manufacturing rather than low-cost consumer goods flooding world markets. The production growth is fueled by domestic competition, government subsidies, and a weak exchange rate, all of which enable companies to survive brutal price wars and then export the pressure abroad. These same forces also generate chronic overcapacity and collapsing margins inside China. To keep up, the West will have to shield vulnerable industries in the short term while adapting to a world in which Chinese manufacturing dominance is likely to persist.
Ezra Klein, “Reckoning With Israel’s ‘One-State Reality,’” The Ezra Klein Show, April 14, 2026. Ezra Klein argues that the two-state framework is effectively dead. His guests, Shibley Telhami, Professor at the University of Maryland, and Marc Lynch, Director of the Middle East Project at George Washington University, argue that October 7 has only accelerated Israeli control of Palestinian territories through intensified settlement construction, deeper Israeli control in Gaza, and spillover into Lebanon. The episode confronts the political and moral consequences of a status quo that is routinely described as temporary but is increasingly entrenched.
Sebastian Mallaby, “I Went to China to See Its Progress on A.I. We Can’t Beat It.,” The New York Times, April 13, 2026. Mallaby, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that US chip controls have failed to stop China’s progress in the AI race. Chinese firms have effectively evaded controls, stacked weaker chips, and imitated frontier models. The decisive question is no longer who has the best model, but who can deploy AI most effectively across industry and defense. China is quickly outperforming the US on AI integration. Mallaby argues that Washington should stop chasing an unattainable monopoly and instead try to bargain with Beijing over AI safety and nonproliferation.
Jamelle Bouie, “This Is Not a Man in Control of Himself,” The New York Times, April 15, 2026. Bouie, Opinion columnist for The New York Times, argues that the Iran war has exposed not only Trump’s impulsiveness and emotional instability but also the deeper weakness of a presidency built on unilateral command. But despite his unprecedented use of executive power, Trump has been unable to achieve many of his goals. Bouie links the President’s failure abroad to his failure at home, contending that Trump can destroy institutions and lash out at enemies more easily than he can legislate, persuade, or consolidate power. Durable governance at home depends on consensus and collaboration across the branches of government, not on one person trying to rule by will alone.
Finally, below are links to some of the things I did and wrote this week.
I joined Diane Rehm to talk about the ceasefire with Iran and the future of NATO.
Finally, this week’s World Review focused on new hope on ending the Iran War, the political earthquake in Hungary, and the president vs the pope.
Happy reading, watching, and listening! Stay safe.