When an empire meets its limit – Iran, Trump and the battle for Hormuz

There are moments in international politics when a particular confrontation becomes larger than the immediate dispute that produced it. The present confrontation between Iran and the United States is one such moment. On the surface, it is about a nuclear programme, sanctions, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the terms of a ceasefire that was supposed to lead to a broader peace. But beneath these issues lies a much more consequential political struggle: whether the United States can still compel a sovereign country to accept the political order Washington seeks to impose upon it, and whether a country such as Iran can resist that pressure without being forced into a war whose consequences would extend far beyond the […]