Iran’s “Forward Defense,” Israel’s Security Dilemma, and American Strategy

The ongoing crisis in the Middle East can be understood as the intersection of three developments. The first is Iran’s strategy of forward defense, a style of warfighting that effectively combines material, psychological, and physical elements and has been enabled by regional political developments. The second is Israel’s ongoing political crisis—long in the making—which handicapped Israel’s ability to maintain credibility in the face of the growing threats on all its borders. The third is the uncertainty of US strategy in the Middle East, which has been unable to find a formula for even its medium-term engagement with the region. This article uses these three trends to create a frame of reference for the current crisis.