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Hey folks, Asha here.

Here's a recording of my latest cafe note

when murder becomes a foreign policy tool. As always... Asha here. Here's a recording of my latest Cafe note,

when murder becomes a foreign policy tool.

As always, please write to us with your thoughts and questions at letters atcafe.com.

Dear listener, last week, the Justice Department charged a high-ranking official of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, for his participation in a murder-for-hire scheme against

Masi Alinajad, a U.S. citizen and outspoken critic of the Iranian regime.

These charges are the latest in a troubling stream of cases

demonstrating that assassination plots, including on the soil of Western countries, are increasingly

becoming a foreign policy tool of choice among authoritarian and authoritarian-leaning countries.

The question is whether the current legal and political tools the U.S. and its

Western allies have are enough to stem this tide. In my national security courses at Yale, I teach about

hybrid warfare, a concept that is a little hard for people in rule of law countries like the U.S. to grasp.

Hybrid warfare, also known as asymmetrical warfare,

irregular warfare, or gray zone warfare, are actions taken by a foreign nation that fall short of

conventional warfare, that is, actions involving the use of traditional land, naval, or air,

...