Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East. Hashemi Nader and Danny Postel,eds. (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).

In 2014, the Middle East appeared to teeter on the brink of an all-out sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi’as. In June of that year, the major Iraqi city of Mosul fell to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in a matter of days, bringing the group closer to its vow to eliminate all Shi’as and other religious minorities living in its self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate. Several hundred miles to the west, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps were actively training Afghan Shi’a fighters to support the demoralized troops of Bashar Assad.