Donald Trump returns from his visit to China without the display of strength he had hoped to project to the world. No meaningful public concessions, no visible strategic alignment from Beijing against Tehran, and no image of a leader capable of forcibly reshaping the global geopolitical chessboard.

That alone would already be telling. But placed within the broader context of Iran’s growing strategic resilience and Washington’s increasing inability to impose its political will on key adversaries, the episode becomes symbolic of something much larger: the exhaustion of the old unipolar illusion.

For decades, the United States built its international hegemony on a simple premise: any state daring to challenge its architecture of power would pay an intolerable price.

Devastating economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, sabotage, proxy wars, targeted assassinations and direct military interventions formed the coercive toolkit of the post-Cold War international order.

Devastating economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, sabotage, proxy wars, targeted assassinations and direct military interventions formed the coercive toolkit of the post-Cold War international order.

But hegemony is not measured solely by arsenals. It is measured by the ability to convert material superiority into political obedience. And that mechanism is beginning to fail.

The Iranian case is particularly revealing. For years, Washington wagered that Tehran would eventually be strangled by the combined weight of sanctions, military pressure and diplomatic isolation. The logic appeared........

© Middle East Monitor