A Reading Guide to Making Sense of What's Going On Between the U.S., Iran and Iraq

Maybe you saw the news on Twitter, trending with ominous hashtags like “#WWIII” and “#MovetoIran.” Maybe you received a phone call early this morning from a notoriously panicky relative about your upcoming trip to the region (hi Dad). Or maybe you have no idea what I’m even talking about, but now you’re feeling kind of freaked. Either way, the facts are the same: yesterday Qassim Suleimani, the Commander of Iran’s Quds Force who is largely considered to be the architect of some of the Middle East’s most bloody conflicts of the last 20 years, was killed by a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport.

The strike, ordered by President Trump but not authorized by Congress, is the latest in a series of escalations between the U.S. and Iran, many of which have occurred on Iraqi soil. Why Iraq? Protests in Baghdad, started first by anti-corruption protesters in October, have been co-opted by Iranian-backed Shiite militias on the ground in southern Iraq, where they have grown in magnitude and violence, resulting in the evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel last week. Now the news of the death of Suleimani, one of Iran’s most powerful military figures, has stoked fears of a proxy war in Iraq between the U.S. and Iran. His death has implications for the entire region and the many different religious and ethnic groups that inhabit it, but it’s simply too soon to know what will happen next. For now, here’s a short guide to making sense of what’s happened, what’s going on now, and what’s to come.

Books

Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas

Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic by Narges Bajoghli

The Shadow War by Jim Sciutto

Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria by Sam Dagher

The Iran-Iraq War by Pierre Razoux

Iran: A Modern History by Abbas Amanat

Sacred Warriors: Shia Militias, the Future of Iraq, and Iran's Battle for the Middle East by Ranj Alaaldin (Out in July 2020)

Articles

How the Confrontation Between the U.S. and Iran Escalated
The New York Times, January 2020

'Criminal American aggression': International reaction to the killing of Qassem Soleimani
The Middle East Eye, January 2020

US strike on Iranian military leader sparks escalation fears
Al Monitor, January 2020

The Shadow Commander: Qassem Suleimani is the Iranian operative who has been reshaping the Middle East. Now he’s directing Assad’s war in Syria.
The New Yorker, September 2013

Qassam Suleimani Haunted the Arab World
The Atlantic, January 2020

Iran’s Network of Influence on the Middle East
The International Institute for Strategic Studies, December 2019

‘His mother wept for hours’: The stories behind Iraq’s deadly mass protests
The Independent, October 2019