GPI Global Policy Institute

Iran Protests: When the Bazaar Turns Against the State On January 13, the Global Policy Institute hosted an online discussion examining Iran’s evolving protest movement and its broader political implications, with a focus on the growing role of the merchant class (Bazaaris) and what it may signal for the future of the Islamic Republic. 🎙 Speaker: Ahmad Hashemi 🎤 Moderator: Paolo von Schirach #Iran #IranProtests #MiddleEast #ForeignPolicy #GlobalPolicy #GPI

Trump Has Three Options That Would Devastate Iran Targets (From Fox News)

By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D., Vice President, Lexington Institute. January 14, 2025 Missile production facilities, space launch sites and drone factories among potential targets as pressure mounts on regime No one is better than President Donald J. Trump at putting maximum pressure on Iran.  As protests against the repressive, murderous regime continue, Trump is talking about military options as another means of adding to the dilemmas for Iran’s government.  “Locked and loaded,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Jan. 2, as the protests by the Iranian people ramped up.  Read here and below.

Texas Offers Practical Transportation Lessons For The U.S. (From InsideSources DC Journal)

By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D., Vice President, Lexington Institute. January 7, 2025 The full text of this article is available below and in InsideSources DC Journal at the link here. With travel in America becoming increasingly challenging and congested, it is important to find timely, practical solutions. Texas offers clear and intriguing lessons why expanded air transportation is a compelling alternative to often glamorized high-speed rail. According to the Texas governor’s office, the state’s population increases by 1,500 people daily. After growing faster than any other state over the last two decades, it is now the second-most populous. Texas has added $1 trillion to its gross domestic product over that time. However, the state also faces some serious challenges as it attempts to accommodate millions of new residents. Transportation infrastructure, especially within the Texas Triangle (Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin-San Antonio), is one of its most significant challenges. The I-35 and I-45 corridors, connecting Dallas-Fort Worth with Austin-San Antonio and Houston, respectively, are driving nightmares. More than 50,000 people travel the road between Houston and Dallas daily. Texas Department of Transportation’s North Houston Highway Improvement Project estimates there are 39 million person-hours of traffic delays annually. The project broke ground in 2024 and has a $13 billion price tag. Understandably, there have been many companies attempting to solve the Texas Triangle’s regional transportation problem. The market, with 150,000 daily intercity travelers, generates serious interest for those who believe they can devise automobile-alternate transport modes.

The Strategic Logic of Operation Absolute Resolve (From FOX News)

By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D., Vice President, Lexington Institute. January 5, 2025 President Donald J. Trump has taken a bold step in his campaign to yank Venezuela back from the brink and to keep China out of the Western Hemisphere.  Read here and below. Operation Absolute Resolve was a stunning tactical success by U.S. military forces.  Now comes the hard part: remodeling Venezuela without creating a quagmire. Nabbing illegitimate President Nicolas Maduro was another masterpiece orchestrated by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan “Razin” Caine.  Like the Operation Midnight Hammer’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last June, this operation involved over 150 aircraft and built on America’s complete air dominance.  Caine credited the “years of experience hunting for terrorists.”  Intelligence agencies mapped every moment of Maduro’s routine – down to his pets.

Iran’s Regime Change Is Inevitable

By Ahmad Hashemi January 2,2026 As 2025 drew to a close, the Iranian national currency, the rial, plummeted to a record low. This collapse infuriated the Bazaaris (traditional merchants and shopkeepers), triggering a return of the familiar, tragic cycle of protest and crackdown to the streets of Tehran. The Bazaaris were historically close allies of the clergy. They bankrolled the 1979 Islamic Revolution. However, the new message from the shuttered storefronts of the Grand Bazaar is clear and quite different. The historic pact between the clerical establishment and the merchant class is broken. Nevertheless, notwithstanding this huge setback, even though the Islamic Republic appears more fragile than at any point in its 46-year history, the mechanics of regime survival remain largely intact. For those watching from Western capitals, the temptation to view the mass street protests as a precursor to a swift, perhaps foreign-assisted, collapse, is high. However, the reality on the ground suggests a more sobering truth: regime change in Iran is not a matter of if, but how it will be carried out—and the "how" depends on internal dynamics that foreign bombs cannot ignite, and exiled voices cannot dictate.

Venezuela Mission Spotlights Amphibious Ready Groups and Improved Ship Maintenance

By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D., Vice President, Lexington Institute. December 31, 2025 Operations in the Caribbean are yet more proof that amphibious forces will be in high demand.  In late November, all eyes were on the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, racing from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean to join Operation Southern Spear and help put the squeeze on Venezuela’s illicit money machine. But the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) was already on scene.  “Our integrated Navy-Marine Corps warfighters are ready to execute the nation’s business and deliver quick and decisive combat power no matter where we are tasked in today’s complex global environment,” said Capt. Chris Farricker, commodore, Amphibious Squadron 8, as the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) departed Norfolk, Virginia back on Aug. 15. Embarked with the Iwo Jima ARG was the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, a special-operations capable unit with formidable capabilities for “a wide variety of contingency missions,” as the Navy terms it.  Operation Southern Spear has included interdiction of drug boats and the capture of two Very Large Crude Carrier tankers.

AI Regulation Across the Atlantic: EU AI Act vs. U.S. AI Governance

By Osman Eren Dogan December 29,2025   Abstract One of the most significant contemporary policy issues requiring cooperation between the United States and the European Union is artificial intelligence (AI) governance, particularly in the post-2020 period. This study examines the differences between the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act and United States AI governance, with particular attention to Executive Order 14110. The analysis focuses on how these frameworks differ from a legal perspective, in their methods of application, and in their approaches to encouraging innovative activities (European Parliament & Council of the European Union, 2024; Harris & Jaikaran, 2024). The study explores whether these two distinct systems can coexist, potentially converge under a unified framework, or continue to operate separately. These regulatory choices are assessed in light of their broader implications for global AI norms and public perceptions of AI governance. The research employs multiple methods, including document analysis and expert outreach conducted in Washington, DC.

As we celebrate the joy and spirit of Christmas, the Global Policy Institute (GPI) extends its warmest wishes to our partners, colleagues, and communities around the world. May this festive season bring you peace, hope, and renewed purpose, and may the coming year be filled with impactful ideas, meaningful collaboration, and positive global change. ✨ Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year! ✨

Putin Has Paid a Terrible Price for Goals He Will Not Achieve (From FOX News)

By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D., Vice President, Lexington Institute. December 23, 2025 It is going to take a wall of tanks, air power, and air defenses to defend Ukraine’s border going forward – and that’s if Putin agrees to a ceasefire.  Read on for the discussion with Jon Scott of FOX News and video clip here. Vladimir Putin (on tape): At some point, we absolutely need to sit down and seriously discuss specific issues; we need to put everything in diplomatic language. Jon Scott: That’s Russian President Vladimir Putin on the draft U.S. peace plan that could end the Ukraine war.  President Trump is touting what he calls tremendous progress, even as both sides make it clear there’s a lot of work to do.  National security and military analyst Rebecca Grant joins me now.  Dr. Grant, Vladimir Putin is kind of talking like he’s already won something here.  Has he? Rebecca Grant: Oh, this is no victory for Putin.  I’m hopeful with Ambassador Witkoff in Moscow that we’ll see some real progress.  The way this could turn out is that Ukraine will thrive because the core of this deal is a strong economic future for Ukraine.  Russia has a million casualties, a shattered economy, and they’re a vassal state to China.  So this is no victory for Putin. Jon Scott: But if Ukraine could hang on through the winter, I mean, the situation for Russia isn’t going to get any better, is it?

Trump Doctrine Slams Globalism and Charts a Tougher, Tech-driven US Future (From FOX News)

By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D., Vice President, Lexington Institute. December 22, 2025  Trump’s National Security Strategy declares ‘days of United States propping up entire world order like Atlas are over’ as administration shifts focus Pull up your chair.  Top off your coffee.  Last week, the White House released President Donald J. Trump’s new National Security Strategy, and it is the chattiest foreign policy document you’ve ever seen.  Read here and below. First and foremost, Trump’s strategy is driven by economic priorities.  “We want the world’s strongest, most dynamic, most innovative, and most advanced economy,” as the strategy says. Trump’s strategy cleans house.  No dry and diplomatic language here.  Out with mass migration, Europe, and globalization.  In with flexible realism, drug boat strikes, and Golden Dome missile defense.  This document does Americans the honor of telling it like it is. Of course, the foreign policy establishment freaked out over the venting about Europe.  They should have seen it coming.  “Europe is in serious trouble. They have been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody has ever seen before,” Trump warned in his UN speech. “The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over,” the strategy says. Read it and you’ll learn how America went off track with globalism, and illegal immigration. And why AI, the status of the dollar, and tech investments are leading American policy.  For all its indiscreet and gossipy moments, it’s a spot-on policy diagnosis that points the way to a bright future.  America is not retreating.  Far from it.  This is a strategy full of hope for peace and prosperity – and it makes way for nations like Poland, Finland, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and others to step up.