He has planted his flag.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
The Iran War Has Finally Shattered America’s World
Trump has replaced rules with muscle, alliances with transactionalism and stability with wrath. That’s not entirely bad.
Crises create new realities and reveal existing ones. It’s hard to say whether the crisis in the Persian Gulf is over, with the tense and fragile ceasefire announced earlier this week, or just in temporary remission. But the broader, global implications of the war are already unfolding, and they are stunning in their impact and scope.
The war has dramatized the contours of a weaponized world economy. It has roiled old alliances and unveiled new ones. The fighting has underscored the importance and accelerated the transformation of the Middle East; it points to a future in which global norms erode as raw-power realities take the fore.