Sources tell Threat Status there is unease in some U.S. national security circles that Mr. Trump’s reluctance to increase sanctions on Russia amounts to a missed opportunity to exert leverage over Russian President Vladimir Putin in the administration’s push for an end to the Ukraine war. Mr. Vance said over the weekend that the administration still “has a lot of cards left to play” and new sanctions on Russia’s lucrative oil industry still remain on the table.

Deep divisions over the future of Ukraine’s Donbas region are standing in the way of a peace deal. Russian officials said over the weekend that Ukraine has a right to exist, but only if it agrees to “let people go” from the Donbas region, which Russian forces have occupied since invading Ukraine.

Mr. Trump wrote in a letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — it was made public Sunday — that any end-of-war agreement must protect Ukraine’s “sovereignty.” European Union leaders, meanwhile, say the West would be walking into a trap if it supports ceding any Ukrainian land to Moscow. Finding a way to bridge those seemingly irreconcilable positions looks to be the only way Mr. Trump can achieve his goal of ending the war.

Beijing has deployed a high-visibility charm offensive across Tibet, India and Pakistan, highlighting the region’s importance while leveraging perceived American diplomatic missteps. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Tibet for two days this month, while Foreign Minister Wang Yi toured New Delhi and Islamabad.

Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon, offers a deep dive examining two core issues simmering in the background of the Chinese visits. One is an ongoing clash between Tibet’s Dalai Lama and Beijing over his succession. The clash is casting a harsh light on China’s assimilation of Tibet and related tensions. The other is the dire state of New Delhi-Washington ties, a situation that analysts say offered Beijing the opportunity to reset long-troubled Sino-Indian relations.

India has been angered by Washington’s mediation of the recent India-Pakistan conflict; by Mr. Trump’s welcome of a Pakistani military delegation to the White House; and by Mr. Trump’s imposition of 50% tariffs on Indian goods — the region’s highest rate. “Given the tensions between the U.S. and India, and unmet expectations in India, China may have smelled blood,” says Rob York, director of regional affairs at the Pacific Forum, a nonprofit foreign policy research institute.

Iran has begun holding major military exercises for the first time since the end of the Islamic republic’s 12-day war with Israel. Iranian naval vessels successfully struck targets in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman with cruise missiles in drills last week.

The exercises, dubbed “Sustainable Power 1404,” included short-range Nasir missiles, medium-range Qader missiles and long-range Qadir missiles, according to state-affiliated media. The Nasir and Qadir missiles were fired from the IRIS Genaveh missile launching frigate and the IRIS Sabalan destroyer, while Qader missiles were fired from coastal platforms.

Iran’s navy saw little combat during the war with Israel in June and remains the most intact service in the Islamic republic’s military. Many of Iran’s top military leaders were killed during the war via precision missile strikes by Israeli forces. Iran’s missile defense capabilities were also severely weakened.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “desperately needs a new and more comprehensive strategy,” writes Daniel N. Hoffman, who asserts that he and his senior national security officials “should start by reacquainting themselves with the lessons the U.S. learned from Iraq,” especially those pertaining to “the concept of counterinsurgency.”

“Israel should devise and implement its own robust counterinsurgency strategy that would seek to drive a wedge between Hamas terrorists and the civilian population,” writes Mr. Hoffman, a retired CIA clandestine services officer and opinion contributor to Threat Status.

“It should develop closer coordination with Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, and outline a realistic plan that includes empowering reconcilable Palestinian leaders and factions for Gaza’s economic reconstruction and political future,” he writes. “Greater international support for Israel’s conduct of the war could translate into much-needed financial, military and diplomatic support.”

Mr. Trump took a “page out of the Reagan playbook by ordering strategic airstrikes to neutralize the nuclear threat in Iran without dragging us into a war or conflict,” writes Scott Walker, a former Wisconsin governor and columnist for The Washington Times, who adds that the president now appears “eager to end the war in Europe.”

“I was on CNN when word came out about the summit in Alaska. The chattering class said it was too quick and required much more planning by bureaucrats,” writes Mr. Walker. “These were the same types of elitists who mocked Reagan when he walked out on Gorbachev in Reykjavik, who denounced Reagan when he called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire, who ridiculed his call to ‘tear down this wall!’”

“But it worked,” Mr. Walker writes. “Despite the cries from the intelligentsia, peace through strength works. To his credit, Mr. Trump is trying to make it work again.”

• Aug. 26 — The Future of Naval Aviation: A Conversation with Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cheever and Lt. Gen. Bradford J. Gering, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Aug. 26 — Reexamining the U.S.-South Africa Relationship, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

• Aug. 27 — Advancing America’s Quantum Leadership with Next-Generation Sensors, Center for a New American Security

• Aug. 28 — AI Safety Governance in Southeast Asia, Brookings Institution

• Sept. 2 — Envisioning the Threat to Taiwan: A Cross-strait and Beyond Seminar, Atlantic Council

• Sept. 4 — The Digital Front Line: Building a Cyber-Resilient Taiwan, Hudson Institute