As every tourist who has strayed into a bazaar or souk knows, Middle Easterners drive a hard bargain. And the Iranians, with their long history of strategy and commerce, are among the region's most savvy negotiators. President Trump's pointman for the region, Steve Witkoff, is finding this out the hard way.

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Once upon a time, Vladislav Surkov was a key architect of Russia's political system and a close adviser to its long-serving strongman president, Vladimir Putin. More recently, however, the man who was once known as "Putin's brain" fell out of favor in the Kremlin's corridors of power, eventually departing the Russian political scene altogether. Yet Surkov remains a figure of considerable controversy, with some observers crediting him with exerting continued influence over the Kremlin's worldview. So when he recently sat down for an interview with France's L'Express newspaper—his first since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2023—it was inevitably a subject of intense interest for Russia-watchers in the West. They were not disappointed.

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Once upon a time, the Middle Eastern media environment was predictable and staid, dominated by a few prominent outlets that in Arab countries were often owned and operated by the governments' information ministries. No longer. Over the past three decades, the region has witnessed an explosion in information and connectivity. In the 1990s and 2000s, a "satellite revolution" dramatically expanded the number of media sources available to Arab publics, broadening their engagement in regional politics and world affairs. Subsequently, in the 2010s, an expansion of digital connectivity further transformed the Mideast media environment by empowering citizen journalism, challenging traditional informational sources and forcing the region's broadcasters onto the digital domain. Today, that ecosystem is evolving still further, as a range of players attempt to shape the "hearts and minds" of Arab publics.

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Since arriving in Washington, D.C., to head up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has taken a hatchet to a growing list of government institutions. The result has been mass firings, extensive furloughs and an expanding number of lawsuits challenging alleged governmental overreach.    For Musk and his colleagues, all this might simply be the cost of doing business. But Washington isn't Silicon Valley, and the operating model of "moving fast and breaking things" being employed by DOGE has real national security implications. That's because it is becoming increasingly clear the White House's current approach to shrinking the government is rebounding to the benefit of adversary nations. 

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On March 20, Iranians in Iran and in the diaspora commemorated Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Typically, U.S. administrations have used the occasion to practice some soft power diplomacy. In the past, America's Nowruz greetings have taken pains to highlight Iran's proud pre-Islamic heritage, underscore its immense civilizational potential, and draw a distinction between the country's historic greatness and its current repressive clerical regime. Not this year, however. The congratulatory message from the new Trump White House on March 19 was decidedly pro forma. At a paltry 109 words, the missive didn't include any of the strategic messaging employed by previous administrations, contenting itself with wishes for a "joyous holiday." That minimalist approach is an alarming signal of what might be to come, as the Trump administration pivots toward engagement with Iran's ayatollahs.

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