As the United States struggles to explain its strategic rationale after decapitating the Iranian leadership, and Israel hammers regional foes on several fronts, Middle East Policy announces a free special issue, Washington’s War on Iran. These 14 articles and three book reviews, all outside our paywall, examine the Islamic Republic’s recovery from the June 2025 conflict with Israel, the potential for the regime to survive, and the country’s social and economic crises—as well as the parallels with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Our new special issue explains how Iran shuffled its national-security team after the June 2025 war and, more important, learned Israel’s strengths and weaknesses in defending against ballistic missiles. From there, it investigates the development of a Sunni-Israeli alliance against Iran, how the Islamic Republic tried to take advantage of the US-China rivalry, and Tehran’s attempt to develop a regime-preservation network by looking East. The articles also explore the country’s weaknesses through the voices of protesters, data on poverty, and a probe of its oil trade under crippling sanctions.
The special issue takes advantage of our vast archive to further analyze the regime’s clerical-military alliance, its defense strategy and capabilities, and the roots of its hostility toward Israel and the United States. The free-to-read articles conclude with a look at the early stages of the Iraq War in 2003, especially our coverage of the potential for perpetual war, the regional impact of US actions, the groupthink that produced the American strategy, and the decades-long political and social changes in the Middle East.
You can find more incisive examinations in The Israel-Iran War, our previous special issue on the 2025 campaign against Iran’s nuclear capacity. And check out the real-time analyses of the new conflict from the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy.
Middle East Policy, Washington’s War on Iran—special issue
TEHRAN’S PERILOUS POSITION
The June 2025 Israeli War: Iran’s Assessment and Regional Consequences
Ali Bagheri Dolatabadi, 2025
Jordan’s Role in Establishing a Sunni-Israeli Alliance
Ronen Yitzhak, 2026
Iran’s Strategies in Response to Changes in US-China Relations
Sara Bazoobandi, 2024
CAN REGIME CHANGE SUCCEED?
Clerics and Generals: Assessing the Stability of the Iranian Regime
Hadi Sohrabi, 2018
Iran’s Supreme Leader: An Analysis of His Hostility Toward the US and Israel
Thomas Buonomo, 2018
Iran’s Defense Strategy: The Navy, Missiles, and Cyberweaponry
Gawdat Bahgat | Anoushiravan Ehteshami, 2017
Iran and the SCO: The Quest for Legitimacy and Regime Preservation
Nicole Bayat Grajewski, 2023
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC’S SOCIAL & ECONOMIC CRISES
The 2022 Iran Protests: The View from the Streets
Rauf Rahimi | Sajjad Rezaei, 2025
Bargain and Barter: China’s Oil Trade with Iran
Shirzad Azad, 2023
Poverty in Iran: A Critical Analysis
Arvin Khoshnood, 2019
ECHOES OF THE IRAQ INVASION
Invading Iraq: The Road to Perpetual War
Ronald Bleier, 2002
Reinventing Iraq: The Regional Impact of US Military Action
Judith Yaphe, 2002
Drinking the Kool-Aid
W. Patrick Lang, 2004
Coping with Kaleidoscopic Change in the Middle East
Chas W. Freeman Jr., 2013
BOOK REVIEWS
Javad Heiran-Nia, Iran and the Security Order in the Persian Gulf
Reviewed by Mahmood Monshipouri
Narges Bajoghli, Vali Nasr, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, and Ali Vaez, How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare
Reviewed by Bahram P. Kalviri
Robert J. Lieber, Indispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in a Turbulent World
Reviewed by A.R. Joyce