Switzerland with Tom Switzer

The New York Times on Sunday, October 25, reports that Washington and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed strikes against Iran, potentially targeting its energy infrastructure, nuclear facilities and missile capabilities. The prospect of further military action comes as the American naval blockade, sanctions and the damage from previous fighting intensify pressure on Iran’s economy, while Tehran warns that any new attack w...

She spent 804 days in an Iranian prison. Now Kylie Moore-Gilbert is receiving death threats again, this time from supporters of the man many hope will replace the regime. She tells Tom Switzer why the Shah’s son is no messiah, why Trump botched the chance for regime change, and who is most likely to rule Iran if the Islamic Republic falls.

After writing a column in The Age questioning Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s las...

France is facing a deepening crisis of political legitimacy. The recent wave of rioting, looting and arson reflects not merely youthful discontent, but a wider challenge to the institutions of the Fifth Republic.

Simon Heffer, one of the English-speaking world’s leading experts on French politics, attributes significant blame to radical-left activists: protests initially focused on the education system have been transformed i...

John Mearsheimer argues that Ukraine cannot win the war, and that Donald Trump’s pressure on Kyiv and his easing of sanctions on Russia are steps towards ending it. Tom Switzer also asks him whether Washington’s economic war on Iran is working, whether Tehran will spring an October surprise before the US midterms, and what Barack Obama’s Belfast remarks reveal about the debate over Israel.

Trump’s growing es...

The Houthi rebels of Yemen have become one of the most consequential and disruptive forces in the Middle East. Backed by Iran but pursuing their own political and military objectives, they have survived years of warfare, Saudi-led intervention and an intense American bombing campaign.

In this conversation, Elizabeth Kendall, one of the world’s leading experts on the Houthis and Director of Girton College, Cambridge, explains ...

President Donald Trump has turned up the pressure on Ukraine, calling for Volodymyr Zelensky to be replaced as president and urging Kyiv to halt its attacks on Russian oil refineries. The intervention raises fresh questions about Washington’s commitment to Ukraine and the direction of Trump’s strategy towards Moscow.

The timing is striking. The Trump administration has also reached an agreement allowing Russia to supply...

Mary Dejevsky spent decades at the heart of British journalism, including many years as a columnist for The Independent. But in June she stepped down from her weekly column, in part because she had become increasingly frustrated by the shrinking space for dissenting views on Russia and Ukraine in Britain’s mainstream media.

On this episode of Switzerland, she tells Tom Switzer why she believes it has become extraordinarily di...

On this episode of Switzerland, Tom Switzer is joined by Sir Max Hastings, one of the world's leading journalists and historians, to ask what a lifetime of studying war and history can tell us about the extraordinarily unsettled world of 2026.

They discuss Donald Trump and the future of the Western alliance, the war in Ukraine, Iran and the Middle East, China, and the significance of the recent US decision to abruptly withdraw B-1 ...

Iran’s economy is under extraordinary pressure. Oil exports are being squeezed, sanctions are expanding and Tehran says it is fighting an “economic war”. Is the regime beginning to crack? 

Or does Iran still hold considerable leverage because it can threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz? The latest evidence, documented in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, suggests the recovery in Gulf oil exports...

Steve Hanke, the veteran and acclaimed free-market economist, discusses America’s cost-of-living crisis, persistent inflation, the $40 trillion national debt and the warning signs coming from the bond market.

Professor Hanke also explains why he thinks the AI boom may be a bubble, why Iran could inflict serious economic damage on the US, and why he has broken with Vice President JD Vance over the future of conservative econom...

President Trump has rejected Iran’s seven-day plan proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms. 

Tehran’s proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz within a week and resumed nuclear talks in return for the US easing oil sanctions and lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, which is causing deep damage to the country’s economy. Trum...

Right-wing populist parties are surging across Europe -- and Germany is at the centre of the upheaval. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has made major gains in recent state elections, challenging the dominance of Germany’s established political parties. What is driving this revolt against the political establishment -- and why is it happening now?

To make sense of the populist ascendancy, Tom Switzer speaks with Simon Heffer...

The most revealing development in Donald Trump’s war with Iran may not be taking place in Tehran at all. It is happening hundreds of kilometres away, on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. In the past week, the Iran-backed Houthis have seized strategically important territory across Yemen’s Red Sea coast. From there, they have greater capacity to threaten shipping through the Red Sea and, crucially, Saudi Arabia’s abilit...

Is Ukraine really turning the tide against Russia? Western media coverage has increasingly focused on Ukraine’s drone strikes, Russia’s economic difficulties and mounting battlefield losses, prompting claims that Vladimir Putin is under growing pressure. 

But what is actually happening on the battlefield? Who has the strategic advantage as the war enters its fifth year, and can Russia consolidate its hold over the ...

Iran is escalating its war with the United States — not only through direct attacks, but through its Shia allies and proxies across the Middle East.

The Iran-backed Houthis have seized key territory on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, including the strategically important Perim Island at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, giving them a growing ability to threaten shipping and Saudi oil exports. At the same time, an attack launched from Ir...

This week on Switzerland, Tom Switzer is joined by Professor Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University.

Subjects include the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks: what did America learn –- and what did it fail to learn? How much of the foreign-policy thinking that emerged from that moment still shapes the Trump administration? When will US leaders recognise limits to military and economic power in a messy world that won&...

It’s been more than six months into the war with Iran, and the question that matters is becoming harder to avoid: who is actually losing this war?

  The conventional wisdom has been that Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran was a catastrophic strategic blunder — that Tehran could absorb the punishment, close the Strait of Hormuz and inflict enormous economic costs on America and its allies.

But the picture ...

The conventional wisdom holds that the US war on Iran has been a massive strategic blunder. As John Mearsheimer has repeatedly argued, Washington went to war with four principal objectives: regime change, ending Iran’s uranium-enrichment program, destroying its ballistic-missile capabilities, and dismantling its network of militia proxies. None has been achieved. Add to this the damage inflicted on America’s alliance st...

Six months after Donald Trump launched his war on Iran, the regime survives, the Strait of Hormuz remains contested, and Washington is struggling to turn military might into a political victory. 

Trump and his supporters can make a credible case that Iran has been severely damaged. Its air force and much of its navy have been destroyed; its nuclear program has been set back; senior leadership has been decapitated; its economy ...