Iran Talks and Trump’s Cuba Strategy w/Ricardo Zúñiga

President Trump is simultaneously pursuing peace talks with Iran while escalating U.S. military pressure in the region following recent strikes. Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer revisit the policy options most likely facing the administration and walk through how they would advise the president at this moment of escalation and diplomacy.

Then, Ricardo Zúñiga, former Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council and one of the architects of the Obama administration’s opening to Cuba, joins to discuss:

• The politics behind U.S.-Cuba policy 

• What Obama was trying to achieve through engagement with Havana

• How Trump’s approach to Cuba and Latin America has changed in his second term

• The likelihood that the U.S. will undertake some form of military action in Cuba

• Whether sanctions and pressure campaigns still create meaningful leverage

• How Venezuela reshaped U.S. thinking about authoritarian regimes in the hemisphere

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Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Show notes are available here.

Transcript coming soon.

Email Jake and Jon at [email protected].

The Long Game is produced by the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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