This week we ask Emma Ashford to reveal the mysteries of Trump's Middle East policy. Then Loren, Radha, and Erin dive into the recent trade dramas before pondering whether the summit with North Korea is best understood as a Rom-Com or Telenovela. Colombian elections, change of command in Afghanistan, and the toxic culture within ICE round out the conversation before we escape to the wonders of pop-culture. 

• Emma Ashford and John Glaser, “Unforced Error: The Risks of Confrontation with Iran,” CATO Institute
• Emma Ashford, “Unbalanced Rethinking America’s Commitment to the Middle East,” Strategy Studies Quarterly
• Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford, “Power Problems,” CATO Institute 
• Runrig, Loch Lomond
• “Colombians vote for new president with peace deal, economy at stake,” Reuters
• Camila Zuluaga, “Colombia, trapped between extremes,” Washington Post
• Ana Swanson, “Trump Administration Plans to Revive ZTE, Prompting Backlash,” New York Times
• Shawn Donnan, “Trump car tariffs highlight threat of retaliatory trade war,” Financial Times
• Jonathan Landay and Rupam Jain, “U.S. sanctions on Iran threaten vital Afghanistan trade project,” Reuters
• Jeremy Diamond, “Peter Navarro and Steven Mnuchin feuded at Beijing trade talks,” CNN
• Daniel W. Drezner, “Targeted Sanctions in a World of Global Finance,” Research on Economic Sanctions
• Kanga Kong, “Budding Moon-Kim Bromance Poses Risk to Trump Pressure Campaign,” Bloomberg
• Laura Rosenberger, “Kim Jong Un is better off now than he was before Trump agreed to a summit,” Washington Post
• Ilan Goldenberg, “Trump Has No Idea How Diplomatic Deals Work,” Foreign Policy
• Patrick M. Cronin and Abigail Grace, “Trump Leaves the Door Open for Another North Korea Summit,” CNAS
• Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, and David D. Kirkpatrick, “Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election,” New York Times
• Dara Lind, “Trump’s DHS is using an extremely dubious statistic to justify splitting up families at the border,” Vox
• Dara Lind, Tweet (25 May 2018)

Lizzie Plaugic, “Amazon is adapting William Gibson’s The Peripheral into a TV series,” Verge