The US-led postwar international order is being tested in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz and in the shrewd calculations of governments from New Delhi to Helsinki.
The widening conflict in the Middle East underscores the recurrent vulnerability of fossil fuel energy systems—and why a pivot to renewables is critical.
"America's allies and partners were not asked to come along until after the strikes began. There was no real process in building a consensus," Council President and CEO Leslie Vinjamuri said. "Now they're scrambling."
As the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran and the conflict intensified, global leaders gathered in New Delhi to debate what comes next. Harsh Pant and Karim Haggag share the takeaways.
"His elevation sends the clearest possible message to Iranian society, to the region, and to the outside world that the Islamic Republic is no longer even pretending to renew itself," Council Senior Nonresident Fellow Saeid Golkar writes.
Washington’s Iran policy should be grounded in human rights, liberalism, democracy, regional stability, national security, and economic opportunity—and treated as both a strategic and a moral issue.
Is this a contained escalation, or the start of something much bigger? Former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro joins from Tel Aviv to unpack what’s driving this moment.
"US President Donald Trump and his administration are plainly unmoved by claims that they bear responsibility for the fates of nations where the United States has intervened," Council Senior Nonresident Fellow Suzanne Nossel writes.
"If the ambition is regime change, the means that are being used certainly are insufficient to achieve that," Council President and CEO Leslie Vinjamuri says. "Iran has been succession planning for a very long time."
