Before becoming preoccupied with calculating how many Iranian vessels were struck in the Strait of Hormuz, or how many commercial ships came under Iranian attack, we must step back slightly from this specific image and attempt to view what is happening through a comprehensive and broader lens of the entire scene.
The comprehensive main headline of the scene or event is that a new international system is currently being built and prepared. In this system, the era of globalization - along with all the chaotic ideas it brought regarding the so-called abolition and crossing of political borders, such as transnational groups and organizations that led to the weakening of the centralized state - has ended. What is happening in our region represents the conclusion of all of this, and a return to reinforcing, strengthening, and valuing the nation-state.
The return to the nation-state; this is the primary headline that addresses current details, which have become minor in the face of this new reality that the Trump administration is attempting to shape. This approach is being echoed and welcomed among countries that have previously suffered from American interference in internal affairs, such as the Gulf Arab states.
In his most recent political speeches, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio summarized his vision for the nation-state through key pillars that reflect the ideology of the conservative "New Right" in America:
The return to the centrality of the "nation-state" and borders, against the illusion of globalization. Rubio believes that the end of the Cold War created an "illusion" that the world would fully transform into free-market democracies, and that the idea that "it does not matter where things are made" was a strategic error.
Borders and absolute sovereignty: Rubio publicly stressed that "the nation-state still matters, nationalism is still real, and national borders still stand," and that countries will always act based on their supreme national interests.
If we move past the American national interest in this new vision and translate it into the details of what is taking place in our region, then what is happening to Iran does not relate to its nuclear program, missiles, drones, or even the Strait of Hormuz. The issue is restoring Iran to its political borders, meaning the borders of the nation-state, and ending of the era of expansion, expansionism, proxies, and transnational groups supported by the Western left, such as the religious groups of the Muslim Brotherhood and Velayat-e Faqih, and the global chaos they created.
Iran has succeeded in exploiting all the opportunities provided by globalization, strengthening the power of transnational groups, particularly Islamic ones, and circumventing sanctions by providing rival of the US with their needs after lowering the cost of their industries under the guise of evading sanctions. It ultimately engaged in actions that threaten international navigation and free trade, turning into a "non-state" whose behavior cannot be contained and which opposes everything that enhances the concept of the nation-state.
Even the Western left, which was the godfather of globalization, has begun to capitulate against the far-right sweep, abandoning the chaos that allowed this Iranian encroachment. Consequently, it has tightened its sanctions and designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization four decades after its establishment and after it had wreaked havoc in the region.
As for Iran's remaining allies, they are willing to help it, but they only want to capitalize on its internal opportunities. It is no longer possible to allow the chaos it created to continue, alongside the unlawful benefits derived from it. Therefore, Iran must return to being a normal state that respects its political borders, which will allow it to coexist with the new international system.
This is the essence of the conflict, which appears to be American-Iranian or Israeli-Iranian, but is in fact centered around the return to protecting the nation-state. Iran is resisting this new reality and insisting on maintaining its project and its rejected tools of expansion.
