As Iraq and Syria are both suffering due to civil war, will the conflicts in both countries become more and more intertwined, or maybe become a single war? That is the question. To some extent they already are intertwined. They are part of the same wider Sunni-Shia struggle. And there is Lebanon boiling and there is civil unrest in Turkey. Egypt stays calm only as long as grain imports lasts.

Welcome to the new Middle East.

It can become a single war if this evolves into a Shia-Sunni conflict. That happening in my opinion atleast, depends upon which policy is successful in the middle east. One policy aims for a Shia-Sunni conflict because this will increase the areas of control of certain countries. The other rivaling policy aims for economic integration and relative stability and hence such a conflict deeply opposes its interest.