Latest news with #StevenCook
Washington Post
18 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Israel is succeeding but will it overreach?
The Middle East is being reshaped by a fundamental shift in the balance of power: the rise of Israel. Consider the changed landscape. In the 1990s, Israel was closer to a run-of the-mill developing country. Today, its per capita gross domestic product rivals many in Europe and is the highest in the region, except for Qatar (which has a lot of oil and gas and few people). In 1990, Israel's GDP per capita was slightly higher than Iran's; today, it is nearly 15 times Iran's. The country now operates at the frontiers of technology, which is why the Gulf states have been so eager to develop ties with it. And in the last two years, Israel's military and intelligence forces have fought and bested Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Syria and Iran. Its multi-tiered air defenses have stopped the vast majority of incoming missiles and drones. Put this all together, and you have a country that has become the region's superpower. Even so, Israeli officials were cautious about acting forcefully against some of the threats they faced. As Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations points out, for the last two decades, the conventional wisdom in the United States and in Israel was that with adversaries such as Hezbollah and Iran — which had thousands of rockets and missiles that they could rain down on Israel — deterrence was the best that Israel could achieve. Every time it suffered a blow, Israel hit back, but it all seemed calculated to avoid escalation. The attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, changed the Israeli mindset, much as 9/11 did for the United States. The country's leaders were far more willing to take risks and confront adversaries preemptively, even preventively. Even so, it launched its exploding pager operation last September only because the plans were in danger of being exposed. Only then did the rest of Israel's attack follow, and it succeeded beyond all expectations, utterly devastating Hezbollah's leadership and its rocket infrastructure. This was the turning point. Hezbollah, the foe on Israel's borders it feared the most, turned out to be a paper tiger. In 2024, Israel attacked and destroyed many of Iran's air defenses. Neither of Israel's attacks that year produced anything near the kind of response that it had feared. Instead, the effect of these blows was to trigger the fall of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, who had been propped up by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. And so, in 2025, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to act on the threat that he had been obsessed with for more than 30 years — and to act aggressively. He launched an air attack against Iran and, so far, it has destroyed much of Iran's military leadership and infrastructure. While it has not destroyed the Natanz and Fordow nuclear facilities, both of which are at least partially buried deep below ground, it has destroyed much of the rest of Iran's nuclear operations. President Donald Trump, who had been eager to negotiate a deal with Iran, counseled Netanyahu not to attack (by Trump's own admission), and, when Israel did anyway, Secretary of State Marco Rubio put out a statement distancing the United States from the operation. Since then, watching Israel's success, Trump has had FOMO — fear of missing out — and embraced the operation, even signaling that he might join in and use America's massive firepower to blast Fordow. But ultimately, putting an end to Iran's nuclear program cannot be done with just bombs, even bunker-busting ones. Iran is a country of 90 million, with a nuclear program that is now almost 70 years old, started under the shah. Thousands of scientists and technicians have worked on it. And nuclear technology is not cutting-edge technology; it was developed more than 80 years ago, in the era of shortwave radio and television tubes. The best way to put it under wraps is to make Iran agree to do so and verify that through intrusive inspections. One of the dangers of military success is that it often expands the victor's ambitions. After a stunning initial success in the Korean War, Gen. Douglas MacArthur decided he would try to unify the two Koreas and moved into the North, triggering a massive Chinese response that bogged down American forces for years. After Afghanistan fell in a matter of weeks in 2001, the Bush administration was emboldened to take the War on Terror to Iraq. In 1982, Israel's early successes in Lebanon led it to try to 'solve the problem' once and for all. What followed was an 18-year unsuccessful occupation of southern Lebanon. Israel's victories have been extraordinary so far, but they are making the country's leaders expand their ambitions — with some openly speaking about regime change and assassinating Iran's supreme leader. They are also emboldening Trump, who wants to get in on the glory. But it is at moments such as this that wise leaders avoid hubris and overreach and instead set clear, achievable goals that can transform military victories into lasting political success.
CNBC
3 days ago
- Politics
- CNBC
Iran's regime is 'quite weak', hard to see Tehran having the last say as escalation window narrows: CFR
Council on Foreign Relations' Steven Cook warns against underestimating Israeli ingenuity, saying years of preparation may allow strikes on Iran's Fordow site even without U.S. bunker busters
CNBC
13-06-2025
- Politics
- CNBC
Israel believes they can end the Iranian regime, says Council of Foreign Relations' Steven Cook
Steven Cook, Council of Foreign Relations senior fellow, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss the Middle Eastern conflict and how things may continue to unfold.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hot in the Heights promises fun and relaxation for 21+ crowd
PEORIA HEIGHTS, Ill. (WMBD)– Kick off the glorious days of summer with food, drink, live music and a giant pong game for great prizes, in Peoria Heights. Terri Sheets, the marketing chair for the Peoria Heights Chamber of Commerce, and Steven Cook the President, stopped by WMBD This Morning to talk more about this premier Peoria Heights event. Hot in the Heights is a ticketed event for the 21 and older crowd, and will take place from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on May 29. 'We wanted people to just be able to come out and have fun and relax and not also herd their children, just a good date night kind of party,' Cook said. The music for the evening comes from local heroes, Jammsammich, and Windows Down, and is essentially a 'four-hour concert,' Sheets said. For the massive Pong game, think Beer Pong, with 100 cups filled with gift cards, merchandise and 'swag', instead of beer, for a dollar a toss. Hot in the Heights will take place at Tower Park, and tickets can be found on the website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump to embark on Middle East trip to meet Gulf allies
Donald Trump this week will embark on the first foreign trip of his second administration with a tour of the Middle East, as he looks to secure investment, trade and technology deals from friendly leaders with deep pockets amid turbulent negotiations around numerous regional conflicts, including Israel's war in Gaza. The tour through the Middle East is largely a repeat of his first international trip in 2017, when he was feted in the region as a transactional leader eager to secure quick wins and capable of providing support for the regional monarchies' economic and geopolitical interests. His negotiations in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will focus on a number of topics, including oil and trade, investment deals, the regional conflicts in Israel-Gaza and Yemen, and negotiations over the Iran nuclear programme among other issues. But Trump's key goal is to come out of the region saying that he put America first, say observers. 'I think what he's clearly looking to get out of this is deals, the announcement of multiple multi-billion dollar deals,' said Steven A Cook, the senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. 'The president's approach to foreign policy is heavily influenced by … his version of economic statecraft, which is to look towards the wealthy states in the Gulf and their very large sovereign wealth funds as sources of investment in the United States,' he said. Trump has already announced Saudi Arabia's commitment to invest $1tn into the US economy and is hoping to secure big-ticket investments on Monday's visit. That would be consistent with his America First policy of prioritising domestic interests, Cook said. Those countries may also seek access to advanced US semiconductor exports, and Saudi Arabia will want to ink a deal on civilian nuclear infrastructure, which had previously been tied to the country's normalisation of relations with Israel. In a departure from previous policy, the Trump administration has indicated the two issues are no longer linked. The Middle East trip is notable for the US president's lack of plans to visit Israel, where Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet have floated plans to launch a larger invasion of Gaza and expel the Palestinian population there in what critics have called a broad plan of ethnic cleansing. The Israel-Gaza war will loom large over the negotiations, as Saudi Arabia has said it will not normalise relations with Israel unless there is a clear path to a two-state solution, and many countries in the Middle East have spoken out against a proposal that began with Trump to expel Palestinian from Gaza to other Arab countries. 'He could have gone to Israel like he did last time,' said Elliot Abrams, former deputy national security advisor under President George W Bush and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He added that Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, had cancelled a planned trip to Israel. 'I think there's some tension here … [Israel] knows that Trump is going to be spending a week in the Gulf hearing about Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, Gaza every day. So it's not the best moment in US-Israel or Trump-Israel relations.' There is a growing understanding in Washington and Israel that Trump has taken a step back from attempting to mediate the war in Gaza. His administration said that they would negotiate a new aid deal without the direct involvement of the Israeli government to renew deliveries of aid into Gaza, which is suffering its worst humanitarian crisis of the war since a ceasefire collapsed in March. Related: How Trump's walkaway diplomacy enabled Israel's worst impulses 'He's the only one who speaks the same language as Netanyahu, and he's the only one who can speak to Netanyahu in a language that Netanyahu will understand,' said Ami Ayalon, a former director of the Israel Security Agency, also known as the Shin Bet. 'Trump again, when it comes to to the hostages, when it comes to our relations in the Palestinians, has become the center of everything in the Middle East,' he said. That turns Trump's attention to the things he can get done. He has said that he plans to decide on his trip to Saudi Arabia on an announcement that the US could refer to the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia rather than the Persian Gulf. That has angered Iran at a moment when the Gulf states appear largely in support of US efforts in talks on the future of the Iranian nuclear programme. As opposed to 2017, the Gulf states have largely spoken in support of renewed negotiations between the United States and Iran over the nuclear programme, but those governments were said to be unclear on the details of any deal as of yet. 'US partners have confided to me that there are US statements on all of these issues, but they don't yet see US policies,' said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at CSIS, a thinktank. 'The US government doesn't speak with one voice and its actions remain uncoordinated.' In Saudi Arabia, Trump has enlisted his son-in-law Jared Kushner to act as a point man for the discussions ahead of the trip, CNN has reported. Kushner, who was Trump's envoy to the region during his first administration, is said to be tasked with making progress in discussions of Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham accords. But his role is also tainted by a perceived conflict-of-interest given his family's business interests in the region. Yet with such a complicated tableau of economic and geopolitical interests in the region, there are questions about whether the Trump administration has the focus and the team to pursue a comprehensive policy in the region. Many in Trump's orbit say that US policy should place lower priority on the Middle East, and focus instead on China and the Indo-Pacific region. 'I think the sense that there's these pieces that the President is negotiating don't respond together, and that his priority really is essentially domestic focus, securing, you know, agreements to invest in the estates,' said Cook. 'Regionally, the president would like these issues to go away, and that's why he has these compressed timelines he doesn't want to focus on.'
