WarTalk with Ely Ratner on Iran War Peace + the ’BS’ US-China Stalemate

Ely Ratner, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs and now a principal at the Marathon Initiative, joins Jordan, Bryan Clark, and Justin to make sense of the Iran ceasefire and where US-China competition goes next.

We discuss:

• Why the MOU reads as a loss: the blockade comes down first, Iran keeps its missiles and its "nuclear dust," and a younger, harder regime learns it can take American firepower and wield an oil weapon

• The "bullshit détente" with Beijing and whether reindustrialization can carry a China-competition message without sounding hawkish

• Output metrics over input metrics, the seven-year force-posture problem, and what Ratner wishes he'd moved into the "break glass" category at the Pentagon

• RoboCom: the pros and cons of standing up a new combatant command

• Plus Crassus at Parthia, and why chasing parades is a bad idea unless you're the ny knicks

suno song: https://suno.com/s/scu8twGj01AIOYSL

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices