Episode Notes:

Ankit sat down with Nicole Grajewski, a fellow with the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an expert on Iran and Russia. In this episode, recorded shortly after the Iranian president was killed in a helicopter crash, the two discussed what Ebrahim Raisi’s death might mean for the Iranian nuclear program. The conversation also focuses on whether and how Iran might benefit from non-weaponized nuclear deterrence. Iran is a country without nuclear weapons but on the threshold of building them, and Nicole and Ankit explore how the Iranians think about this regarding their ability to extract political concessions and engage in conventional military violence, as well as how it enables Iran to better pursue its national objectives.