From Supremacy to Burden-Sharing: The Iran War Recrafts America's Middle East Role
Dana Stroul argues that the Iran war exposed the United States’ strategic overreliance on a Gulf-centric security guarantee: the U.S. and its partners demonstrated overwhelming conventional power, yet Iran adapted with a mosaic defense and maritime coercion that threatened Gulf stability and global energy flows. The conflict highlighted the limits of static basing, strained the defense industrial base, and showed that long-term strategic wins require shifting from being the region’s sole security guarantor to its security integrator, accelerating basing flexibility, coproduction with Gulf allies, faster acquisition, and a broader, multinational security framework that includes Europe and Asia to deter Iran and reassure partners.