Carys Garland is pleased to welcome Barbara Slavin, Author and Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. According to Slavin, the war on Iran is not a coherent strategic endeavour, and reflects a pattern in which rhetoric trumps reality. Rather than emerging from necessity, diplomatic alternatives were dismissed and intelligence warnings inadequately considered. Slavin warns military actions have strengthened hardline elements within the Iranian regime and has destabilised the global economy. External force will never achieve regime change nor secure lasting stability, she argues.