Half-Baked Regime Change (with Martin Benes)

Alex sits down with coach and student of history Martin Benes to unpack the rapidly escalating crisis in Iran, where U.S. and Israeli strikes and the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have triggered a wider regional conflict and renewed calls for regime change. They argue that much of the political class is advancing a “forever war to end all wars” narrative without a serious plan for what comes next. The conversation frames the current strategy as a half-baked theory of regime change—one that assumes victory will naturally produce stability. Alex hints that tomorrow he’ll lay out a broader theory for understanding how these conflicts actually unfold.