In the face of rising fears of war between Iran and the United States, several questions arise. Does the US really want to burn the Middle East down? What does the Iranian leader mean when he says the war will affect the entire region? Shall Russia and China watch the match from the fence? How long can Iran carry the burden of war? And how long can it hold the siege of the Strait of Hormuz? Can the so-called “serious talks” bring a lasting peace between Iran and the US, and, for that matter, with Israel?

I would approach these questions from two positions: oil and hegemony.

Since President Trump took over, he has immediately faced two paramount challenges: the humongous national debt and the world’s increasing jibes that the United States is no longer the superpower, that the world is transitioning from a unipolar to a multipolar order. How does one meet these two challenges? If we look at his moves, which are often unthinkingly termed reckless, reactionary, and unpredictable, they begin to make total sense.

If the world has stopped recognising the US as the sole superpower, then what use is the post-Second World War order which the United States built to maintain its hegemony? Therefore, before another system replaces it, why not tear it down yourself? This began immediately after the Trump administration took over. The first indication was Vice-President J.D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Conference, where he talked down to European NATO partners, telling them to start shouldering the financial and military obligations of the trans-Atlantic alliance.

This was followed by other significant moves signalling the end of an era, including Elon Musk's criticism of the notion of equity, diversity, and equality in the wake of the........

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