What Caught My Eye (no. 59)

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.

• Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptack, “Leaked Memos Reveal the Supreme Court’s “Shadow Docket” Strategy,” New York Times, April 18, 2026. A series of leaked internal memos provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how the Supreme Court emplys its “shadow docket” to issue major rulings without full briefings or oral arguments. The memos detail the arguments that led to the first use of the “shadow docket” and how Chief Justice Roberts drove the practice with little concern for the way it opened up a pandora’s box. Critics argue this transparency-lite approach undermines the Court’s legitimacy, while proponents suggest it is a necessary tool to check executive overreach (or, in recent years, free Trump to act without congressional or judicial input and restraint).

• Zia Weise and Sara Schonhardt, “How the Iran War Solidified China’s Clean Energy Dominance,” Politico Europe, April 19, 2026. While the conflict in Iran has sent global oil markets into a tailspin, China is emerging as the primary geopolitical beneficiary of the resulting energy transition. Beijing’s decade-long investment in solar, wind, and battery supply chains has allowed it to weather the oil shock far better than Western nations still tethered to Middle Eastern crude. As Europe and Asia scramble to subsidize their own transitions mid-crisis, they are finding that the “green” path out of fossil fuel dependency leads straight through Chinese technology and critical minerals. This shift suggests that the war hasn’t just destabilized the Middle East, but has effectively locked in a Chinese-led global energy order for the foreseeable future.

• Fabrice Deprez, “Ukraine’s Robot Revolution and the Future of Attrition,” Financial Times, April 19, 2026. The war in Ukraine has evolved into a high-tech laboratory for autonomous warfare, where drones and ground robots are increasingly replacing soldiers on the front lines. This report highlights how Kyiv is leveraging AI-integrated systems to offset Russia’s numerical advantage in manpower and conventional military capabilities. By treating hardware as expendable rather than precious, Ukraine is pioneering a doctrine of “mass-produced attrition” that could redefine 21st-century combat. However, the rapid pace of this technological race raises urgent ethical and strategic questions about the role of human judgment in a world of automated killing.

• Farnaz Fassihi, “Iran’s New Guard: The Rise of the Generals,” New York Times, April 23, 2026. With Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly sidelined by injury and communicating primarily through handwritten notes, power in Tehran is shifting decisively toward an entrenched military elite, writes Farnaz in a fascinating story about the new power structure in Tehran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has moved from being the regime’s enforcer to its primary decision-maker, effectively sidelining the traditional clerical establishment. This “militarization” of the leadership suggests a more pragmatic, though no less hardline, approach to the current conflict as the generals prioritize state survival over ideological purity. For the West, this means negotiating with a regime that views every diplomatic overture through the lens of battlefield tactical advantage.

• David French, “The Just War Debate: Catholicism, Trump, and Iran,” New York Times, April 23, 2026 Times columnist David French examines the moral architecture of the war with Iran through the lens of Catholic “just war” theory. He argues that the Trump administration’s current military campaign fails the critical tests of last resort and proportionality, potentially labeling the conflict as an “unjust war” in the eyes of many religious leaders. The piece highlights a growing rift between the administration’s hawkish foreign policy and the traditional moral frameworks of its conservative religious base. Ultimately, French suggests that a war started without a clear, achievable end-state risks becoming a moral and strategic quagmire that the American public is ill-prepared to sustain.

• Gen Z’s Growing Cynicism: The 2026 Harvard Youth Poll, Harvard Kennedy School, April 23, 2026. The latest Harvard IOP Youth Poll reveals a generation defined by a profound sense of political powerlessness and economic dread. A majority of young Americans now believe that “people like them” have no say in how the government is run, with trust in federal institutions hitting an all-time low of 15 percent. Economic pressures, specifically inflation and housing, remain the primary drivers of this malaise, far outpacing other social or cultural issues. While young voters still lean Democratic, their lack of faith in the fairness of the 2026 midterms suggests that turnout may be driven more by duty or fear than by genuine enthusiasm.

• Nahal Toosi, “So You Want to Negotiate with Iran…,” Politico, April 25, 2026. In her latest Compass column, Nahal Toosi argues that the Trump administration has yet to answer the most basic questions needed to negotiate a durable end to the Iran war, and that its preparations have been, as she puts it, "not great." The first and hardest question is whether Trump is genuinely prepared to leave the Islamist regime in place — because no deal is possible without that concession, yet accepting it will enrage Israel, Iran hawks, and many Iranians who see the regime itself as the problem. The administration also needs to decide what minimum it will actually demand: nuclear program only, or ballistic missiles and proxy forces too, and how a deal will be verified — because, as she makes clear, a framework with bullet points and no implementation details is not a deal. Toosi warns that Iran's negotiators have dealt with multiple American administrations and will run rings around any U.S. team that hasn't done its homework, and that without consulting Congress, allies, Russia, and China, even a good-faith effort could collapse at the finish line.

Finally, below are links to some of the things I did and wrote this week.

• I wrote about Trump’s announcement of an indefinite ceasefire with Iran on America Abroad.

• I joined Camille Grand on the Brussels Sprouts podcast to talk about how a more European NATO might be constructed.

• This week’s World Review focused on the stalemate between Iran and the United States, the opportunity for peace in Lebanon, and the vibe shift in Ukraine.

Happy reading, watching, and listening! Stay safe.