The ongoing US-Israel combine’s assault on Iran is engendering critical ramifications which are already influencing geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic dynamics at the global, regional and sub-regional levels.

At the geopolitical level, the US appears to be getting the worst of it. The limits of its power and coercive policies are becoming glaringly evident. It is becoming increasingly isolated in the geopolitical arena. Ominously, its erstwhile allies in Europe, the Indo-Pacific (Australia, India, Japan, South Korea etc) and Asia have not mustered to its ranks. It has unmatched military might, but the same cannot be said of its diplomatic clout, moral high ground and ascendancy any more. Europe, chastened and hurt by President Trump’s blatantly coercive policies and demeaning rhetoric, his handling of the Ukraine imbroglio and Russia, his conduct of NATO affairs, and the imposition of an abrasive, unilateral trade and tariff war on it, has baulked at joining this war against Iran. It does not own this war. Period. Critically, the Europeans have refused to join President Trump’s efforts to force open the Hormuz Straits too, which are effectively controlled by the Iranians. The Gulf Arab states, on the other hand, appear to be caught in no-man’s-land. The optics of them assisting the US-Israel combine against Muslim Iran would be devastating, yet they feel constrained to defend themselves too. Have the US bases in the Gulf Arab states turned out to be assets or liabilities? The Gulf Arab states will........

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