Iran Could Speedrun the Vietnamese Path
Let’s hope so.
Graeme Wood
Graeme Wood is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters With the Islamic State. He joined the magazine in 2006 after working as a translator, courier, and bootlegger in northern Iraq. He has since reported for The Atlantic from every continent except Antarctica, and on subjects ranging from foreign policy to pro wrestling. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and teaches at Yale University.
Latest
Thanh Hue / Getty Trump’s Stone Age Threat Will Lead to Tragedy
America and Iran are playing different games.
Illustration by Lucy Naland. Sources: Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty; Nathan Howard / Getty. Mutual Assured Energy Destruction
Wrecking oil infrastructure is easy; rebuilding it is hard.
Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty Snorkeling in the Strait of Hormuz
With Iran threatening to attack, points of entry to the strait are ready to turn into sprawling maritime parking lots, filled with idle ships waiting for their escorts.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Naeblys / Getty. If You Hate Dubai
Dubai has welcomed residents from practically everywhere on Earth, and its openness stands in defiant contrast with Iran.
Massimo Borchi / Getty Why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Is Still Useful
For more than a decade, he has been known more as a regime opponent than as a supporter.
Sobhan Farajvan / Sipa USA / Reuters ‘The Most Dangerous Man in the World’
Mojtaba Khamenei, a candidate to succeed his father as Iran’s supreme leader, is no reformer.
Morteza Nikoubazl /NurPhoto / Getty Pete Buttigieg in the Wilderness
He has a beard, a splitting maul, and a house in Michigan. Is that enough to convince America that he’s a man of the people?
Eric Ogden for The Atlantic Why Khamenei Is Dead
The best-planned defenses don’t count for much if the people you trust to run them are ready to sell you out.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. Iran Goes to War Against the Arabs
Countries such as Saudi Arabia once wondered whether Tehran could be appeased and contained. Now they do not.
Reuters
