'Trump's high&stakes political theatre: US winning conventional war, Iran winning asymmetrical war'

Delano D'Souza is pleased to welcome Dr. William Lawrence, Senior Academic and Research Fellow-in-Residence and the Director of the North African Area Studies Program at the National Council on US-Arab Relations. As a former US diplomat in the Muslim world, he views what we are witnessing as a deliberate embrace of chaos and unpredictability as a coercive tool. Yet such theatrical instability carries diminishing returns when used as a modus operandi, explains Dr. Lawrence. "Trump thinks he can force Iran to the table by being hyperbolic, apocalyptic and chaotic. Iranians, in turn, respond with so much mockery and bravado." 

'Trump's high&stakes political theatre: US winning conventional war, Iran winning asymmetrical war'
Delano D'Souza is pleased to welcome Dr. William Lawrence, Senior Academic and Research Fellow-in-Residence and the Director of the North African Area Studies Program at the National Council on US-Arab Relations. As a former US diplomat in the Muslim world, he views what we are witnessing as a deliberate embrace of chaos and unpredictability as a coercive tool. Yet such theatrical instability carries diminishing returns when used as a modus operandi, explains Dr. Lawrence. "Trump thinks he can force Iran to the table by being hyperbolic, apocalyptic and chaotic. Iranians, in turn, respond with so much mockery and bravado."