Hello, everyone. Today at WPR, we’re covering the Pentagon’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk, the outlook for Thailand’s border war with Cambodia following Thai elections last month, and what the Iran war says about Russia’s diminished credibility. | But first, here’s our take on today’s top story: |  | A young Iranian volunteer stands on the ruins of a destroyed police facility in Tehran, March 4, 2026. (photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via AP) |
| As we noted earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Cabinet officials have not been consistent in explaining their goals for the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran, which has now spread to most of the Middle East and even parts of Europe. | Prior to the war, as the U.S. military was building up a presence in the region, Trump mused publicly that regime change in Iran would be “the best thing that could happen.” Since the war began, he and his aides have stopped discussing the war in those terms, suggesting a reluctance to take total ownership over the conflict’s outcome. But at the same time, they have been quite open that they would view a change of government in Tehran as favorable to U.S. interests. | In an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington yesterday, senior Pentagon official Elbridge Colby was asked point blank whether it was accurate to say that the objective of the U.S. military campaign “was not regime change.” . . . | Purchase a subscription now to read the rest and get the full top story in your Daily Review email every day. | | This is the free edition of our Daily Newsletter. If you believe you are a paid subscriber and are receiving this edition by mistake, please reply to this email and we’ll make sure you receive the paid edition going forward. |
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| | On Feb. 27, mere hours before the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran with the help of tools made by leading AI company Anthropic, the company’s relationship with the U.S. government went up in flames. Amid a contentious and very public contract dispute over how Anthropic’s models could be used by the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Anthropic a supply chain risk in a statement so broad that it can only be seen as a power play aimed at destroying the company. The Pentagon is not just an existential threat to Anthropic—it also strikes at the heart of the system that has allowed the U.S. to build a world-leading tech sector, WPR columnist Kat Duffy argues. | | | In Thailand’s national elections last month, interim Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul won an upset landslide victory. The reformist People’s Party—which had won the most seats in the last elections in 2023, was widely expected to come away with the most seats this time around, but it badly underperformed its polling. One of the main reasons for this was that the election unfolded amid Thailand’s on-again, off-again conflict with Cambodia, which Anutin’s Bhumjaithai party used to stoke nationalist sentiments. Now that Anutin has consolidated power in part because of this rally-around-the-flag effect, he will have little incentive to resolve the conflict, Joshua Kurlantzick writes. | | | When Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed last weekend in a joint U.S.-Israeli operation, Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately reacted with a condolence message that excoriated the killing as “a cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law.” For Russia’s allies, it was a worrisome sign. Once again, Moscow was defending its friends only with words, even as their survival hung in the balance, Frida Ghitis writes in her weekly column. | | | Honduras: President Nasry Asfura has ordered a review of his country’s relationship with China amid expectations that he will restore the country’s diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and distance Honduras from China. His predecessor, Xiomara Castro, established formal relations with Beijing and cut ties with Taiwan, but on the campaign trail last year Asfura promised to reverse that move. Honduras’ ties with China have not yielded the expected economic benefits. For example, exports of farmed shrimp—a key industry for Honduras—to Taiwan have fallen dramatically, and Chinese purchases have failed to make up for the shortfall. | Yet as Howard Shen and Frank Alley explained in WPR in September 2025, the debate over China ties is about more than economics. “It is about election integrity, sovereignty and foreign influence, as well as Honduras’ position in the intensifying global competition between democratic and authoritarian powers,” Shen and Alley wrote. “Honduras’ diplomatic alignment has become a frontline issue in a larger contest over influence, standards of governance and the nature of great power engagement in the Global South.” | | The paid edition of today’s newsletter includes additional On Our Radar items. Purchase your all-access subscription now to make sure you don’t miss important news and analysis. | If you believe you are already a paid subscriber and are receiving this free edition by mistake, please reply to this email and we’ll make sure you receive the paid edition going forward. | | More from WPR | | Read all of our latest coverage here. |
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Welcome to my geopolitics blog site. This is a Hawaii Island news site focusing on geopolitical news, analysis, information, and commentary. I will cite a variety of sources, ranging from all sides of the political spectrum.