The Cost of an Incoherent Foreign Policy

Trump’s Iran Imbroglio Undermines U.S. Priorities Everywhere Else

By Brett McGurk

"Washington’s policy today is defined by incoherence: maximalist ends, minimalist means, false assumptions, few allies, all pressure, no diplomacy," writes Brett McGurk in a new essay. "With the stakes as high as another war in the Middle East, it is not too much to demand clarity on priorities and strategic orientation."

Read more from Foreign Affairs on Trump’s foreign policy in the Middle East and beyond:

"The Imperial Presidency Is Alive and Well"
by Sarah Binder, James Goldgeier, and Elizabeth N. Saunders
"How the Trump Administration Refashioned American Strategy" by Elbridge A. Colby and A. Wess Mitchell
"Reckless Choices, Bad Deals, and Dangerous Provocations" by Hal Brands
"America’s Middle East Purgatory" by Mara Karlin and Tamara Cofman Wittes
"Why Trump’s Shapeshifting Syria Policy Worked—Until It Didn’t" by Frances Z. Brown
"Why U.S. Foreign Policy Will Never Recover"
by Daniel W. Drezner

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