Seventeen days into Operation Epic Fury, Iran holds the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. has no exit strategy, and the Gulf States face a conflict reshaping the region's security architecture. Dr. James M. Dorsey assesses why escalation remains more likely than resolution and what the post-war Middle East could look like.

For years, the Gulf States sold the world on stability, investment, and distance from the Middle East's wars. Two weeks of Iranian strikes have shattered that narrative. In this Wikistrat analysis, Dr. Neil Quilliam examines how the GCC is absorbing the shock and what the post conflict landscape means for the region's security, economy, and diplomatic future.

Washington is ready to declare victory, but inside Iran the picture is far less conclusive. The regime has absorbed the worst of the air campaign, installed Khamenei's son as successor, and is already planning to rebuild its deterrent underground. The opposition is fragmented, the diaspora is discredited, and the ethnic fault lines that could reshape the country remain poorly understood. Ahmad Hashemi breaks down why the real strategic challenge begins the moment the bombing

Six days into the U.S.-Israeli air campaign, the Islamic Republic is battered but functioning. Dr. Sina Azodi assesses the regime's resilience, the opposition's limitations, and why bombing alone has never produced regime change.