On June 13, 2025, Israel launched a preventive war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially declared his intention as destroying Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic-missile capabilities, the war aim immediately began to shift toward regime change. The United States then faced the question of whether to join the war on the side of its Israeli ally or to press for negotiations to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program. This special issue of Middle East Policy presents analyses of the key issues of this conflict: how Israel gained its advantage, the causes of the conflict, how Washington came to take Israel’s side, and the stakes of the nuclear negotiations.
THE BREWING CONFLICT
Open Access
Iran's Annus Horribilis in 2024: Beaten, but Not Defeated
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 21 May 2025
Free to Read
The Impact of Benjamin Netanyahu's Beliefs On Israel's War against the Axis of Resistance
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 04 June 2025
Free to Read
Iran's Ballistic-Missile and Space Program: An Assessment
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 25 March 2019
Free to Read
Iran and Israel: The Avoidable War
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 02 September 2007
WASHINGTON TAKES ISRAEL'S SIDE
Free to Read
Conjuring an Enemy: US Discourse and Policy on Iran, 1979–88
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 12 February 2025
Free to Read
Lessons from America's Misadventures In the Middle East
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 01 December 2015
Free to Read
Iran and America: Is Rapprochement Finally Possible?
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 20 December 2005
Free to Read
The Strategic Functions Of U.S. Aid To Israel
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: October 1996
THE NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION
Free to Read
Negotiating the Restoration Of the Iran Nuclear Deal
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 16 August 2024
Free to Read
Negotiating the Impossible? A WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 26 February 2025
Free to Read
Israel's Future and Iran's Nuclear Program
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 14 September 2009
Free to Read
Symposium: Iran and the Arab World: Implications of the Nuclear Negotiations
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 15 September 2015
BOOK REVIEWS
Free to Read
The World Powers and Iran: Before, During, and After the Nuclear Deal By Banafsheh Keynoush. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. 196 pages. $54.99, hardcover.
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 05 May 2024
Free to Read
A New U.S. Paradigm for the Middle East: Ending America's Misguided Policy of Domination, by Paul Pillar, Andrew Bacevich, Annelle Sheline, and , Quincy Paper No. 2, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, July 2020.
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 17 January 2022
Free to Read
Europe and Iran: The Nuclear Deal and Beyond and Nuclear Multilateralism and Iran: Inside EU Negotiations
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 07 September 2017
Free to Read
Reagan: His Life and Legend By . Liveright, 2024. 880 pages. $45, hardcover.
- Middle East Policy
- First Published: 02 June 2025