Two contested topics, done properly.

The roots of the current escalation — what thirteen voices are saying

Where the smartest analysts agree, where they disagree, and what the conventional take is missing this week.

Halevi and Beinart converged on something this week.

The herald for this week's article — three turns worth pausing on: Mearsheimer extends the structural read, Hughes's ask-asymmetry, and the Halevi–Beinart convergence.

The axis that wouldn't quite collapse

Twelve days of war proved the network can be degraded. Whether it crumbled or phase-shifted is the question dividing every credible voice.

Reading Tehran from inside, not outside

Vali Nasr's new piece on misreading domestic factions, an FDD pushback, and one essay that survives both critiques.