The pretext for Trump’s aggression against Iran, in partnership with Israel, is flimsy. As the saying goes, even a gentle rabbit may bite when cornered. The current war is, in some respects, an extreme manifestation of hegemony. And the whole world is paying the price.

The contradictions between the Trump administration’s state strategies and outward actions highlight its new geopolitical interventionist mindset. It claims to oppose prolonged wars, yet it does not reject military means to pursue economic interests. Washington has exposed its hegemonic nature.

The U.S.-Israel war with Iran is exposing widening reluctance among American allies to support the conflict, signaling potential erosion in U.S. global influence. At the same time, moves to bypass the U.S. dollar in oil trade, amid growing Chinese involvement, could challenge the petrodollar and reshape the global energy order.

Four interconnected risks threaten Republican control of the U.S. Congress in November’s midterm elections. The vote will determine not only control of Congress but will also profoundly influence the future trajectory of American politics.

Donald Trump is deconstructing U.S. foreign policy through his erratic decision-making and appetite for political theater. The correction likely depends less on any single president but on whether America can build more stable strategic assessment mechanisms, more open decision-making processes and more resilient policy-correction capacity.

The messy crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has clarified how power works in the 21st century. It reminds us that the greatest long-term threat to the United States is not China’s military buildup or Russian aggression, but the gradual fragmentation of the alliance system that has underwritten its global leadership since World War II.

The chaotic conditions created by the U.S./Israeli war against Iran are now in an escalatory phase. The reverberations will be severe worldwide.

Initial American success against Iran has settled into protracted unpredictability. Things are not going exactly as planned for the United States, and significant unforeseen costs of war may emerge. Trump’s bluster cannot cover or eliminate the strategic pitfalls inherent in U.S. military operations.

The security foundation on which the GCC’s economic model was built has been seriously undermined. Unless these nations can forge a new, credible framework, it will be difficult to sustain the foreign investment and confidence that have fueled their growth.

The war against Iran is not going well for Israel, which is being bombarded daily, nor is it going well for the US, which has seen its military bases and strategic facilities in the region attacked and degraded by Iranian drones and missiles. Of course, Iran suffers most of all, but it has shown a remarkable capacity to fight a war of attrition, despite the dreadful daily onslaught from the skies. Its reconstituted leadership has shown not a hint of the “unconditional surrender” that Trump is demanding.