Middle East conflict looks increasingly like a war nobody can win

By Bamo Nouri, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of International Politics, City St George's, University of London
Inderjeet Parmar, Professor in International Politics, City St George's, University of London

Let’s begin with a simple question that rarely gets a straight answer: what would victory over Iran actually look like? In Washington and Jerusalem, the answers tend to sound definitive: eliminate Iran’s nuclear capability, break its regional power, perhaps even force political change at the top. It’s the language of decisive war, the kind with a clear endpoint.

But shift the perspective to Tehran, and the definition changes completely. Victory, for Iran, is survival. That asymmetry shapes the entire…

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