A week of escalating Israeli aggression against Iran marks a turning point in the US-Israeli campaign to reshape West Asia and finalize the Zionist project of fully occupying Palestine – now pursued through openly genocidal means. Another conflict for regime change in West Asia appears increasingly imminent, once again justified by long-discredited claims about nuclear weapons that, after two decades of scrutiny, remain nonexistent in Iran. Israel’s bombing campaign, which effectively derailed Iran’s ongoing negotiations with the United States, will do nothing to promote regional peace.
The absence of a strong response from other global powers renders the situation even more dangerous. Iran is no paper tiger, despite the claims of Israeli and Western hawks, and any attempt to overthrow its government is unlikely to be swift or easy. Instead, it risks sparking a prolonged conflict involving actors well beyond the US, Israel, and Iran. Still, should the United States succeed in toppling the Islamic Republic, it would mark the most significant imperial victory since the collapse of the Soviet Union – a crowning achievement in its decades-long drive for unchallenged global dominance.
US pursuit of unipolarity
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has pursued a path of uncontested hegemony – a global order defined by unipolarity. The first strategic move in this pursuit was the expansion of NATO, which necessitated a series of military interventions in Europe aimed at eliminating any remaining resistance to Western imperialism. The first of these was in Bosnia in 1995, where NATO’s intervention succeeded in dismantling the post-Yugoslav socialist military infrastructure and solidifying Western presence in the Balkans. The second followed in Kosovo in 1999, where the objective was to sever Serbian influence and prepare the ground for a Western-aligned Kosovo. That same year, NATO bombed Yugoslavia, accelerating the dismemberment of a once-independent regional power.
The success of these actions – breaking Eastern Europe from Russian influence and bringing vast swathes of territory under NATO control – imbued US foreign policy circles with a deep sense of confidence, even arrogance. This was a “victory run” that many believed would never end. For a time, it seemed that Russia had been permanently defeated, politically neutralized, and economically subordinated – no longer capable of challenging US global dominance.
Having established near-total dominance in Europe, effectively placing Russia on its back foot, the United States shifted focus to the broader project of neutralizing resistance to its hegemony in the West Asia and North Africa. Cloaked in the narrative of the “war on terror,” the Bush administration weaponized the trauma of 9/11 to launch an ambitious campaign to restructure West Asia and North Africa. Despite the collapse of the Left in much of the region, nations like Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Libya continued to assert nationalist and anti-imperialist positions – standing in defiance of US control. The campaign began with the invasion of Afghanistan, a move not merely about counter-terrorism but about establishing a geostrategic foothold to contain any future Russian resurgence.
Then came the Arab Spring of 2011. Sparked by a popular uprising in Tunisia, the movement promised democratic renewal from below – mobilized masses demanding transformation. But this type of change, rooted in popular agency, was far more threatening to US hegemony than any autocrat. The US quickly backed a reconstituted military dictatorship in Egypt ensuring that no democratic, anti-Zionist government would arise in Cairo. With regional resistance weakened, the US pivoted toward diplomatic normalization of its hegemony through the Abraham Accords – agreements that are often misunderstood as Trumpist maneuvers but are in fact a continuation of long-term US strategy to stabilize Zionist dominance in the region under a compliant regional order.
Rise of China and crisis of capitalism interrupt US aims
The 2008 economic crash exposed the deep contradictions of US capitalism, marking a turning point in the credibility of the imperial center. A decade later, the grotesque mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, the product of years of neoliberal dismantling of public infrastructure, laid bare the internal decay of the US empire. Meanwhile, the anticipated decline of China never came. On the contrary, China steadily met its development targets, eradicated extreme poverty, and moved decisively toward a socialist-oriented economy. The relative economic decline of the United States, coupled with a string of failed military campaigns in West Asia, signaled that the unipolar era might be unraveling. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it became clear that the earlier weakening of Russia had been only temporary. A more assertive and militarily capable Russia had returned to the geopolitical stage, forcing the world to reckon with a shift in power dynamics long in the making.
The emergence of multipolarity has been met by the global Left with ambivalence, contradiction, and at times confusion. At one end, some Left voices have denounced China as authoritarian and Russia as imperialist, playing directly into US narratives that aim to delegitimize any alternative to its rule. At the other end, there have been triumphalist pronouncements of US imperialism’s imminent demise, with misplaced faith in Russia and China to “save” the world – militarily in the case of Russia, economically in the case of China. Both positions are flawed. The former directly reinforces US domination by erasing its challengers. The latter displaces responsibility from popular forces to states – replacing mass struggle with passive hope. Neither response advances the cause of anti-imperialism. The task before us is not to outsource struggle, but to reclaim it, rooted in the organized and conscious efforts of peoples everywhere.
Multipolarity: Weaknesses and contradictions
The ongoing genocide in Gaza underscores the fragile and still-developing nature of the emerging multipolar world order. For over 20 months, the world has borne witness to the mass killing of civilians, the targeted assassination of resistance leaders, and the systematic destruction of an entire people – yet none of the so-called rising powers have been able to mount an effective response. The impunity with which Israel and the United States have carried out what is arguably the most visible genocide in modern history reveals the absence of genuine counterweights to US imperial dominance. Despite their rhetorical opposition to Western hegemony, neither Russia nor China has taken meaningful steps to halt the bloodshed. On the contrary, the United States has pursued its campaign of extermination and regional restructuring without consequence.
As Washington inches toward open conflict with Iran – an escalation that would further destabilize the region and threaten the global economy – the silence or passivity of other global powers becomes even more stark. While direct military intervention by China or Russia may not deter this trajectory, assertive diplomatic action or economic measures that challenge the viability of the Zionist project could at least signal a coordinated stance from anti-hegemonic forces. To date, however, four of the five founding BRICS members – India, China, Russia, and Brazil – have either maintained economic ties with Israel or refrained from leading global condemnation efforts, in contrast to South Africa. India has been the most reticent to criticize Israel publicly, while Brazil lacks the leverage to influence the conflict significantly. China maintains economic ties with Israel, despite Israel not ranking among its top twenty trading partners.
This should serve as a wake-up call for all Left forces. The emerging multipolar order signals potential transformations – ranging from national liberation to greater economic interdependence among Global South countries, and even the possibility of a more egalitarian system of global governance. However, genuine multipolarity will not emerge solely through diplomatic efforts by counter-hegemonic states; it will require mass popular mobilization to forge a renewed global order.
If there is to be a defeat of US imperialism, it will come from the mobilization of people – from workers, students, peasants, and revolutionaries around the world. Anti-imperialist states may be allies, but they will not be enough to undo the unipolar order. The agency, the initiative, and the responsibility to resist lies with us. Relying on others to fight our battles is folly. Let’s organize. Let’s mobilize. The struggle is ours.
Stephanie Weatherbee Brito is the co-coordinator of the International Peoples Assembly (IPA).
