Scholar Gilbert Achcar on the U.S. War Against Iran & Trump’s “Old-New Imperial Doctrine”

April 30, 2026

We speak with Lebanese-born academic Gilbert Achcar about the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, U.S. foreign policy under President Trump and more. Achcar says Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran are not as dramatic a departure from U.S. policy as some commentators have suggested, calling it “an old-new imperial doctrine.” While the George W. Bush administration believed in “regime change,” says Achcar, Trump is “just going back to 19th-century gunboat diplomacy: You bomb a country until they submit.”

Achcar’s new book is Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: President Trump said Wednesday the U.S. will continue its naval blockade of Iran until Tehran makes an agreement over its nuclear program. Trump’s comments to Axios raised the prospect that the Strait of Hormuz could remain closed for months, setting off panic in global energy markets. Axios is also reporting that President Trump is slated to receive a briefing today on plans for new potential military action in Iran from CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper. This comes as the U.S. blockade and U.S.-Israeli attacks have pushed Iran into a severe economic crisis, with the cost of food and medicine skyrocketing.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and controlled demolitions in Lebanon are ongoing. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced. Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said, quote, “The fate of southern Lebanon will be the same as that of Gaza.”
AMY GOODMAN: To discuss this and more, we’re joined by the longtime scholar of the region, Gilbert Achcar, emeritus professor at SOAS, the University of London. His article from earlier this year in Le Monde Diplomatique is headlined “US: an old-new imperial doctrine.” His latest book, Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective.
Gilbert Achcar, thanks so much for joining us today. If you could start off by explaining exactly what you mean by the new-old imperial doctrine?
GILBERT ACHCAR: Yes. Good morning, Amy and Nermeen. Very great to be with you, despite the very sad character of the times we’re going through. I’ve been listening to the program from the beginning. It’s really demoralizing.
Anyway, right, I mean, it’s an old-new imperial doctrine in the sense that the basics of imperialism are still at work, but with shifts over the time. If you compare to the George W. Bush era, when a regime change was on the order of the day through the invasion of Iraq, with the pretension of bringing democracy to that country, well, that’s one thing that Donald Trump cannot be accused of, which is the claim of bringing democracy anywhere, right? So, that’s definitely not his cup of tea. And instead of that, he’s just going back to 19th-century gunboat diplomacy: You bomb a country until they submit, until you get them doing what you want.
Now, he had a success in this kind of policy in Venezuela after abducting the president of the country. And he believed very, I would say, very stupidly, very short-sightedly, that the same could be repeated by just decapitating the Iranian regime. And the result is definitely the most botched up of all U.S. imperial wars in history. I mean, I can’t think of any other failure in planning, any other degree of wishful thinking into getting into a war. And actually, he got exactly the contrary of what he was pursuing, in some sense. He believed that the pragmatists in the Iranian regime would take over after his military action. Well, the result has been exactly the contrary. It’s very clearly just enhanced the militarization of the regime. It enhanced the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
And if you compare with — I mean, whatever one thinks of Barack Obama’s policy on the matter, but the deal he did with Iran strengthened the hand of the reformists in the Iranian regime. You had Hassan Rouhani as president, and he stayed there for several years. But then came Donald Trump, who just removed all that. The result has been Iran going back to uranium enrichment and increasing it tremendously, and the hard-liners taking over. So, that’s the most counterproductive policy ever. I mean, this belief that the big stick will work everywhere is just so, so short-sighted.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Professor Achcar, I want to ask about what you think led the U.S. into this war. You’ve said, you know, that some commentary which suggests, erroneously, in your view, that it was Israel that forced the U.S. into this war. You said in an interview recently, quote, “Conservatives — such as John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, and the wing of the MAGA sphere represented by Tucker Carlson — try to obscure the reality of US imperialism and attribute its failures to the Israel Lobby, if not to [quote] 'the Jews,' as in the case of [Tucker] Carlson.” So, if you could elaborate on that and explain why this argument could even plausibly be made?
GILBERT ACHCAR: Sure, Nermeen. I mean, this is the game of blame it on Israel, if not blame it on the Jews, as you said. And, I mean, it strikes me that this began with the failed Iraq invasion of 2003. Mearsheimer didn’t say the same of the bombing of Iraq, the turning of Iraq into the Stone Age, as the U.N. report said, in 1991, because he believed, probably, that that was a success. So, this idea of blaming U.S. failures on Israel or anyone else is indeed an attempt to blur the reality of U.S. imperialism.
And let me tell you one thing. It is, I mean, absolutely obvious to me that for Donald Trump, for Kushner, Jared Kushner, for Steve Witkoff, the Gulf monarchies are much more important than whatever Israel can represent. I mean, that’s where their economic interests are. That’s where they have billions of dollars of joint investments and the rest. And therefore, I mean, of course, the United States has used the Israeli military, who was only very happy to oblige in this joint war on Iran, but you could see, everyone could see, how when Donald Trump decided that he had to stop, he did not even consult Netanyahu, although he, Netanyahu, has been on his side from day one.
So, I mean, no, these wars are U.S. imperialist wars. You can have a convergence with the Zionist state on this or that issue. But, basically, the key driving force for the United States is U.S. imperialism, U.S. capitalism, key interests of the United States, and not Israel. This is just a very misleading interpretation of facts.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Professor Achcar, finally, you know, now it’s been two months since this war began, and it appears now that no end is in sight. There were talks in Islamabad and Pakistan recently, but they seem to be almost entirely at an impasse. So, if you could explain, what are the objectives now of the two parties, and what are the points of difference?
GILBERT ACHCAR: Right. I would first say that I’m not sure that Donald Trump himself knows exactly where he wants to go. I mean, the stated objectives on the U.S. side are the abandonment by Iran of nuclear enrichment. That’s the stated — the major stated goal of the Trump administration.
And on that, the Iranian side has been quite steadfast, refusing the idea of having to stop this uranium enrichment, even though, I mean, there are a lot of reports pointing to the fact of disagreements within the Iranian regime between the pragmatists, who believe that they — I mean, Iran could just abandon this nuclear enrichment if it gets, in exchange, a full removal of all sanctions and a real economic opening. The military side, the hard-liners in the Iranian regime don’t see it that way. Their raison d’être is basically war, you know?
And I made a comparison in that regard between the Russian model and the Chinese model recently. Iran is closer to the Russian model of a combination of militarization and rent economy, oil rent, fossil fuel rent, instead of what the pragmatists there would like, which would be some kind of imitation of the Chinese model of economic opening and, let’s say, more peaceful relation with the rest of the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Gilbert Achcar, we want to thank you so much for being with us, emeritus professor at SOAS, University of London. We’re going to link to your article, “US: an old-new imperial doctrine,” in Le Monde Diplomatique. His latest book, Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective.