The Iran Crisis: Resources From the Council on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs

Resources from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Foreign Affairs offer background and analysis on the consequences of the U.S. targeted killing of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani for U.S.-Iran relations and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

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Inside Iran

Soleimani’s death will be a blow to the Iranian theocracy but will likely temper the clerical oligarchs, writes CFR’s Ray Takeyh.

Iran poses an acute threat to oil infrastructure across the Middle East, potentially allowing it to extort concessions from world powers, explains CFR’s Amy Myers Jaffe. 

A backgrounder looks at the evolution of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. 

The Iran Nuclear Deal

Soleimani’s death will be a blow to the Iranian theocracy but will likely temper the clerical oligarchs, writes CFR’s Ray Takeyh.

Iran poses an acute threat to oil infrastructure across the Middle East, potentially allowing it to extort concessions from world powers, explains CFR’s Amy Myers Jaffe. 

A backgrounder looks at the evolution of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. 

U.S.-Iran Relations

The United States must be ready for Iranian retaliation writes CFR’s Richard N. Haass. 

CFR’s Max Boot writes that Soleimani’s death is unlikely to trigger regime change in Tehran but could lead to a bigger conflict. 

In Foreign Affairs, the Center for a New American Security’s Ilan Goldenberg writes that the United States took a highly escalatory step in assassinating one of the most important and powerful men in the Middle East.

U.S.-Iraq Relations

CFR’s Steven Cook writes that Iraq is lost and that it is time for the United States to leave. 

The Iraqi parliament’s vote to expel U.S. troops makes a pullout of U.S. forces more likely writes CFR’s Max Boot. 

CFR’s Amy Myers Jaffe writes that any escalation in ongoing violence inside Iraq constitutes one clear risk to Iraq’s oil exports.

In Foreign Affairs, Yale University’s Emma Sky writes that the U.S.-Iraqi relationship was another casualty of the strike against Soleimani, and Harvard University’s Meghan L. O’Sullivan argues that the Trump administration should mend relations with Iraq. 

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East

The decision to kill Soleimani will likely force President Trump to devote additional resources to the Middle East at a time of growing concern about North Korea, Russia, and China writes CFR’s Richard N. Haass.

CFR’s Steven Cook says that the killing of Soleimani makes the battle against the Islamic State more difficult and is likely to feed further regional upheaval.

In Foreign Affairs, Kelly Magsamen from the Center for American Progress explains how the United States can avoid another war in the Middle East.