A War With No Winners
Case Analysis 23 June, 2025

A War With No Winners

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Mehran Kamrava

Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar and Head of the Iranian Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. Kamrava has published extensively, including, most recently, How Islam Rules in Iran: Theology and Theocracy in the Islamic Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2024); Righteous Politics: Power and Resilience in Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2023); A Dynastic History of Iran: From the Qajars to the Pahlavis (Cambridge University Press, 2022); Triumph and Despair: In Search of Iran’s Islamic Republic (Oxford University Press, 2022); A Concise History of Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2020); Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf (Cornell University Press, 2018); Inside the Arab State (Oxford University Press, 2018); The Impossibility of Palestine: History, Geography, and the Road Ahead (Yale University Press, 2016); Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (Cornell University Press, 2015); The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War, 3rd ed. (University of California Press, 2013); and Iran’s Intellectual Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2008). His edited books include The Sacred Republic: Power and Institutions in Iran (2023); The Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics (2020); The Great Game in West Asia: Iran, Turkey, and the Southern Caucasus (2017); Fragile Politics: Weak States in the Greater Middle East (2016); Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East (2015); The Political Economy of the Persian Gulf (2012); The Nuclear Question in the Middle East (2012); and The International Politics of the Persian Gulf (2011). His personal website is: mehran kamrava.com.

​​​ acrobat Icon ​The United States has finally caved in to Israeli pressure and has bombed Iran’s most important nuclear facilities, located in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow. Depending on Iran’s response, the consequences of a wider war could be catastrophic for Iran and for the rest of the Middle East. The region is just recovering from George W. Bush’s reckless invasion of Iraq. It could once again be plunged into the abyss. This is a scenario that benefits Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and harms everyone else.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, has finally gotten the war he has been clamoring for for so long. When Israel attacked Iran on June 13, it tried to accomplish several objectives all at once. The attacks were launched at a politically perilous time for the Israeli Prime Minister, when his fragile governing coalition was at its weakest and faced defections from at least two coalition members. For the first time in months, Netanyahu now finds himself in a politically powerful position at home, at least temporarily, with most Israelis rallying around the flag and determined to support the country’s fight against Iran.​