Two Nuclear Problems, One Policy: Maximum Pressure

President Donald Trump faces two high-stakes nuclear problems with two rogue regimes. And in the pursuit of elusive grand bargains, he has relied heavily on one tool: “maximum pressure.”

But with neither North Korea nor Iran has the strategy yielded the ultimate nuclear deal so far.

With North Korea, Trump introduced an escalating series of sanctions and harsh tweets (remember “”?) that, after a tense few months of brinkmanship in the summer and fall of 2017, yielded quickly to maximum engagement. Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, have now held two summits, exchanged letters, and, in Trump’s words, “fell in love.” For Iran, the pressure phase looks nowhere near over; just this week, the United States dispatched an aircraft carrier and to the region and imposed yet another round of sanctions, as Trump has done repeatedly since pulling out of what he called the “disastrous” nuclear