As Trump moves to cut off Iran’s oil revenues, what’s his endgame?

Source:Brookings Institute Date:23Apr2019

Concerned that Tehran could snatch victory from the jaws of an American bludgeon simply by holding on, the Trump administration is now aiming to deal a death blow.

Will it succeed? As with all revolutionary enterprises, it is too soon to tell. The past decade has demonstrated emphatically that Washington can decimate the Iranian economy and that the international community has neither the recourse nor the incentive to wholly forestall that outcome. However, there is simply no precedent for an externally-driven economic implosion to trigger a successful transition away from a well-entrenched authoritarian regime toward a durable democracy or enhanced regional stability.