The Islamic Republic under Existential Pressure: Domestic Durability, Strategy, and the Risks of Continued Escalation Without Off-Ramps

The US-Israeli military campaign against Iran has transformed a political conflict into a threat to regime survival. 

Existential conflicts have no off-ramps: when regime survival is at stake, the duration of confrontation fundamentally changes. Iran cannot defeat the US or Israel militarily, but it can sustain energy disruption indefinitely making this a crisis of potentially years, not weeks.