As geopolitical tensions escalate, the U.S. wields its most formidable weapon—not military might, but a sophisticated network of political and informational control that reshapes nations and regions to serve its interests.

Despite the collective efforts of NATO in arming, training, and backing Ukraine, Ukrainian forces continue to give ground at an accelerated rate across the entire line of contact amid the ongoing Russian Special Military Operation (SMO).

Yet, even as this new paradigm sinks in, the US has demonstrated it still possesses a powerful and so far unparalleled and yet unanswered superweapon. It used it to create conditions across the Arab World to slowly and steadily hollow out both the Syrian economy and the Syrian Arab Army resulting in the total collapse of both in mid-December 2024 after years of staving off US-backed terrorists attempting to overrun the country.

Not only did the Syrian economy, army, and thus government collapse, many across the world cheered on as UN-listed terrorist organizations seized power in Damascus and publicly carried out atrocities in Syria’s streets against ethnic, religious, and political opponents.

All of this is owed to Washington’s unanswered “superweapon” and its control over global information and political space.

Washington’s Superweapon: Political Interference, Capture, and Control 

Not as glamorous as an Oreshnik missile, Washington’s superweapon is, in fact, many times more powerful and more difficult to defend against.

Beginning as regime-change operations carried out by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), it has transformed over the years into what is now known as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED*).

The NED oversees a network of subsidiaries (Freedom House, the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute (NDI)) as well as adjacent government organizations (USAID*) and private foundations (Open Society, Omidyar Network) which fund hundreds of organizations, projects, opposition groups, and political parties on every inhabited continent on Earth.

The Middle East: Setting the Battlefield for War with Iran

In recent years, it trained armies of agitators years ahead of the 2011 “Arab Spring” to return to their home nations and overthrow their respective governments. The political turmoil these US-backed agitators created was leveraged by likewise US-backed armed extremists to violently depose governments that refused to cave to political pressure.

While the NED’s own website claims it “promotes freedom around the world,” its political interference has destabilized and destroyed entire nations and even whole regions of the planet, leading to hundreds of thousands of dead and millions displaced. What is left of these nations is rendered into an internally warring failed state or a client regime serving Washington’s interests entirely at the expense of the targeted nation’s own best interests – sometimes a combination of both.

The region itself is taking a very deliberate shape aimed at encircling, isolating, and eventually targeting and toppling the nations of Iran, which represents the center of resistance to US hegemony in the region.

NED in Europe: Creating a “Democratic” Russia

Another example is Ukraine. Efforts by the US NED* to overthrow an independent and neutral Ukraine began as early as 2004, the Guardian would report. An identical operation would repeat itself again in 2014, this time succeeding. It included not only NED*-funded political agitators, but also armed extremists including Neo-Nazis joined on stage by US senators cheering them on in Kiev.

The purpose of NED*-funded political interference undermining the political independence of targeted nations is not only to politically capture the nation itself, but cobble it together with other captured states within the region to form a unified front against Washington’s chief adversaries.

In Europe, this adversary is clearly Russia.

Damon Wilson, as executive vice president of the Atlantic Council before joining the NED* as president and CEO, would talk about eliminating what he called “grey zones of........

© New Eastern Outlook