The second stage to Trump’s “hand-off” of the Ukraine war to the Europeans was clearly set out in his Truth Social post of 23 September. In the first phase of the hand-over, Trump withdrew from being the primary supplier of armaments to Kiev, and indicated that from...
Alastair Crooke
The Genie of ‘Israeli First’ Dominance is Out of the Bottle
by Alastair Crooke | Sep 23, 2025 | Featured Articles
“Gaza is on fire; the Jewish state will not relent,” Israeli Defence Minister Katz excitedly proclaims: “The IDF is striking with an Iron fist at terrorist infrastructure.” In fact, over recent weeks Israel has struck at “infrastructure” in West Bank, Iran, Syria,...
Maintaining escalatory dominance: Trump and the predominant sway of ‘Israel Firsters’
by Alastair Crooke | Sep 17, 2025 | Featured Articles
The strike on the Hamas negotiating team assembled in Doha to discuss the “Witkoff Gaza proposal” is not just another “IDF operation” to be passed over silently (as with the de-capitation of almost the entire civilian cabinet in Yemen). It marks rather, the end to an...

Can Trump re-adjust in the post-Tianjin SCO moment? Was the timing of China ‘throwing down the SCO gauntlet’ entirely fortuitous?
by Alastair Crooke | Sep 9, 2025 | Featured Articles
The gloves are off. The SCO Summit was a clear demonstration of the reality of power starkly coalescing, on the one hand, and one of power visibly ebbing, on the other. The amazing military parade was the summit counterpart – it spoke loudly: You want to take us on?...

Israel’s ‘New, Violent Zionism’ as a Harbinger of Imperial Geo-politics of Submission and Obedience
by Alastair Crooke | Sep 3, 2025 | Featured Articles
Israel’s strategy from past decades continues to rest on the hope of achieving some literal Chimeric transformative “de-radicalisation” of both Palestinians and of the Region, writ large – a de-radicalisation that will make “Israel safe,” This has been the “holy...

Trump as ‘Myth’ is Understood in Moscow. They Reciprocate
by Alastair Crooke | Aug 26, 2025 | Featured Articles
Trump’s ascent to a portion of the “Mythic” has become only too evident. As John Greer has observed: It’s becoming difficult even for the most dyed-in-the-wool rationalist to go on believing that Trump’s political career can be understood in the prosaic terms of...

A Further US Attack on Iran Would be Pointless Kabuki
by Alastair Crooke | Aug 5, 2025 | Featured Articles
A US President, beset by the Epstein story that refuses to lie down and die, and under pressure from domestic hawks because of a visibly collapsing Ukraine, has been letting off a blunderbuss of geo-political threats across the board: Firstly, and principally, at...
Is the Trump ‘Mystique’ Broken? Does MAGA Sense Betrayal?
by Alastair Crooke | Jul 29, 2025 | Featured Articles
The Epstein cloud is metastasizing and becoming a rallying point for deep-seated popular alienation from certain ruling strata. The public begrudgingly has become resigned to accept that their “rulers” routinely lie and steal, but nonetheless they (particularly within...
US Hubris-Driven Blunders Transform the Entire Complexion of the Wider War
by Alastair Crooke | Jul 16, 2025 | Featured Articles
The big issue emerging from the US’ 22 June strike on Iran – second only to “wither Iran?” – is whether in Trump’s calculus he can “rhetorically impose” the having “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme claim long enough to both restrain Israel from hitting Iran...
‘The Land of Performance’: Trump Wanted a Perfect War, a Headline Showstopper
by Alastair Crooke | Jul 8, 2025 | Featured Articles
“Depending on who you ask, the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan was either a smashing success that severely crippled Tehran’s nuclear programme, or a flashy show whose results were less than advertised … In the grand scheme of...
What Means ‘Winning’?
by Alastair Crooke | Jul 1, 2025 | Featured Articles
At one level, Iran plainly “won.” Trump had wanted to be regaled with a reality-TV style, splendid “Victory.” Sunday’s attack on the three nuclear sites indeed was loudly proclaimed by Trump and Hegseth as such – having “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment...
The key nuclear allegation that started the war was coaxed from a Palantir counter-intelligence algorithm
by Alastair Crooke | Jun 24, 2025 | Featured Articles
The IAEA Board’s “Non-Compliance” Resolution on 12 June 2025 was the planned precursor for Israel’s “bolt from the blue” strike on Iran the next day. Israelis say the plan to go to war with Iran was grounded in “the opportunity” to strike, and not the intelligence...
The Silence of the Bears
by Alastair Crooke | Jun 10, 2025 | Featured Articles
Russia’s leadership is in “conclave” determining its riposte. Trump has been silent for two days. Unprecedented. In the last days, Ukraine and its facilitators attempted a massive attack on Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber-force; succeeded in collapsing two bridges...
‘One Quiet Early Morning in Beijing, the Dollar’s Crown Slipped’
by Alastair Crooke | Jun 3, 2025 | Featured Articles
“I believe we must start from the notion of defeat leading to revolution – to grasp the Trump revolution.” “The experience underway in the United States, even if we don’t know exactly what it will be, is revolution. Is it a revolution in the strict sense? Is it a...
Why Doesn’t the ‘Deal-Maker’ Close the Deal?
by Alastair Crooke | May 6, 2025 | Featured Articles
The story, both on Ukraine and Iran, is that President Trump wants a “deal” – and both deals are available – yet he seems nonetheless to have boxed himself in. Trump presents his Administration as being something rougher, meaner, and far less sentimental. It aspires...
The Kellogg Framework is a Disaster for Trump
by Alastair Crooke | Apr 29, 2025 | Featured Articles
Political warfare in Washington is endemic. But the body count at the Pentagon has started to rise precipitously. Three of Secretary of Defence Hegseth’s top advisors were placed on leave, and then fired. The war continues, with the Secretary now in the firing line....
A ‘Trump Deal’? Juggling War, ‘Easy War’ and Negotiation
by Alastair Crooke | Apr 26, 2025 | Featured Articles
Trump clearly is in the midst of an existential conflict. He has a landslide mandate. But is ringed by a resolute domestic enemy front in the form of an “industrial concern” infused with Deep State ideology, centred primarily on preserving U.S. global power (rather...
‘Break-a-Leg’ (that old Mafia warning) – Trump has threatened Iran over an ultimatum that likely cannot be met
by Alastair Crooke | Apr 9, 2025 | Featured Articles
Trump’s ultimatum to Iran? Colonel Doug Macgregor compares the Trump ultimatum to Iran to that which Austria-Hungary delivered to Serbia in 1914: An offer, in short, that “could not be refused.” Serbia accepted nine out of the ten demands. But it refused one – and...
Transactional Weakness Tips the Balance of Power – ‘Hold to no Illusions; There is Nothing Beyond This Reality’
by Alastair Crooke | Apr 2, 2025 | Featured Articles
The post-WWII geo-political outcome effectively determined the post-war global economic structure. Both are now undergoing huge change. What remains stuck fast however, is the general (Western) weltanschauung that everything must “change” only for it to stay the same....
Trump and Putin Begin Addressing Cumulated Geo-strategic Debris… Amidst Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran
by Alastair Crooke | Mar 25, 2025 | Featured Articles
The phone call on 18 March between Presidents Trump and Putin has happened. It was a success, insofar as it allowed both sides to label the result as “positive.” And it did not lead to a breakdown (by virtue of the smallest of concessions from Putin – an energy...
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