Ends Without Means: A Strategic Net Assessment of the US-Iran War

AI Summary

This article applies a strategic analysis framework to assess the US-Iran war, highlighting a misalignment in political objectives, sequencing of actions, and the performance of national power instruments. The study focuses on the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and its failure to end the conflict effectively.

Abstract Applying the ends-ways-means-risk framework to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the war it failed to end, this article finds a mismatch at every level of strategy: a political objective that has shifted repeatedly, a sequencing choice that spent coercive leverage before extracting verified compliance, and instruments of national power that performed well in isolation but were never … Read more The post Ends Without Means: A Strategic Net Assessment of the US-Iran War appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.