Israel and Iran: How to Prevent a Regional War

Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon has broken a status quo that could carry potentially momentous consequences for a country and a region already marked by a year of conflict. Critical questions loom. What are Israel’s military objectives in the south and can they be achieved? Has the weakening of Hezbollah shifted Lebanon’s internal power balance and created opportunities for strengthening state sovereignty? How will Iran respond to the weakening of its billion-dollar proxy? And are there realistic opportunities for the international community, especially the United States, to pursue diplomatic options that could produce greater stability in Lebanon and along the Israel-Lebanon border?  Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with Kim Ghattas and Ambassador David Satterfield to address these and other questions on Carnegie Connects. 

During the past two weeks, the possibility of a major Middle East multi-front war has increased significantly. Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah and Iran’s launching of ballistic missiles against Israel has created the potential of an escalatory ladder that both Iran and Israel might climb with dangerous consequences. Iran’s role and what they do next will be decisive.  Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Middle East Program, and Suzanne Maloney, vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, to discuss how Iran perceives the current landscape and may act as the crisis unfolds. 

As Lebanon was rocked by two days of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies directed at Hezbollah’s communications network, killing dozens and injuring thousands, tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have risen to new heights.  In a fiery speech, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed revenge.    How has this latest escalation impacted Lebanon’s internal politics? What are Hezbollah’s options in responding? What are the prospects for defusing not only the current crisis but the complex of issues that have shaped the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah? And what role can the U.S. and other international actors and regional parties play in avoiding an all-out war? Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with His Excellency Abdallah BouHabib, the foreign minister of Lebanon, to discuss these and other issues.

Ukraine’s Kursk offensive has added a new dynamic to an otherwise predictable grinding war of attrition between Russia and Ukraine. The war has now dragged on for the better part of three years, with neither Moscow nor Kyiv able to achieve their territorial objectives. Nor are there any prospects for serious negotiations that might pause or end the war. Are there any developments on the battlefield that suggest changes in either side’s tactics and strategies in the months ahead? Have Europe and the United States developed funding and political strategies to prepare for the long war? What are the right mix of policy tools and overall strategy to help prosecute a long war in Ukraine and an open-ended  confrontation with Moscow?   Join Aaron David Miller as he engages in conversation with Carnegie’s own Dara Massicot and Eric Ciaramella to discuss these and other issues. 

In a recent poll, two-thirds of American adults said they were concerned that “extremists” will commit acts of violence following the 2024 election if they are unhappy with the results. This should come as no surprise. Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that among other threats the 2024 election cycle will be a  “key event for possible violence.” How real is that threat and how would it likely manifest itself? What are the factors driving political violence in America today? And what can be done to mitigate the threat? Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with down with former acting assistant attorney general for national security Mary B. McCord and Eric K. Ward, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, to unpack these and other issues. 

The Middle East continues to boil. Following the Hezbollah rocket strike on a Druze town in the Golan Heights killing a dozen children, Israel targeted a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Two days later, the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed presumably by Israel in a missile strike in Tehran while attending the inauguration of the Iranian President. Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis have all threatened retaliation.What is the likely impact of recent events on the Gaza ceasefire talks? Is the region heading toward a major war? And is there chance for de-escalation diplomacy?Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with Amos Harel, Haaretz’s military correspondent and one of Israel’s leading defense analysts, to discuss these and other issues on Carnegie Connects.

This past spring many college and university campuses were roiled by unprecedented protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Not since Vietnam has any foreign policy issue resulted in such widespread demonstrations on campuses.What explains the intensity of the reaction? Has the Israeli-Palestinian conflict become a permanent fixture of hot debate? What lessons have been learned should demonstrations reoccur this fall? And is it possible to have productive conversations about the conflict without succumbing to nationalized, polarized narratives in a toxic media environment?Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with Princeton University Dean Amaney Jamal and Columbia University Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo for a wide-ranging discussion of  these and other issues.

The Israel-Hamas war drags on seemingly with no end in sight. President Biden has announced a phased plan to end the conflict, but Hamas has yet to respond and Benny Gantz, a supporter of the plan, has left the Israeli government. Meanwhile, there’s serious concern about the prospects of a major escalation between Israel and Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. What is the humanitarian situation for Gaza’s 2.3 million people? Is there any realistic planning for the proverbial day after? And what are the prospects for any regional peace initiative? In this episode, Aaron David Miller welcomes back to the program Ambassador David Satterfield, formerly the White House Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues, to discuss these and other issues.

As the Israel-Hamas war drags on, the potential for spillover effects increase. Three conflict areas have emerged that carry serious risk of escalation: first, growing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah along the Israeli-Lebanese border, attacks by Iranian-backed Houthis against international shipping in the Red Sea, threatening global supply chains and freedom of navigation, and the danger of another direct clash between Israel and Iran.   What are the prospects for regional escalation? Is there a diplomatic pathway in Lebanon? And how have these conflicts affected the international economy, supply chains, and the global trade of hydrocarbons? Aaron David Miller will discuss these and other issues with Amos Hochstein, deputy assistant to the president and senior advisor for energy and investment at the White House. Prior to serving at the White House, Hochstein served as the U.S.-appointed mediator of the Lebanese-Israeli negotiations that resulted in a maritime border agreement between the two nations.

Seven months on, the Israel-Hamas war continues with seemingly no end in sight, against a backdrop of escalating regional tensions. While Israel remains determined to pursue a major military operation in Rafah, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the release of hostages and a ceasefire drag on. Following unprecedented strikes by Iran and Israel on one another’s territory, there is growing concern that Israel and Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese proxy, might find themselves engaged in a major war. Despite these compounding challenges, the Biden Administration holds out hope for a regional peace initiative, including Israeli-Saudi normalization, should the situation in Gaza stabilize.  What are the prospects for ending the Israel-Hamas war? Will the current status quo hold, or might we see another escalation between Israel and Iran? And what is the status of the US-Israeli relationship? Join Aaron David Miller as he sits down with Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog to discuss these and other issues, in the next episode of Carnegie Connects.