The most dangerous moment since the Cold War

As tensions spiral in the Middle East, keep in mind that this is only one of three arenas in the world where revisionists are trying to upend the international order. In Europe, a war continues to rage, and in Asia, a perilous new dynamic is at work. Taken together, they define the most dangerous period internationally since the end of the Cold War.

In the Middle East, the current tensions are rooted in a tussle between Iran and America’s allies, Israel and some of the Gulf states. Iran, being a relatively weak power, has used asymmetrical means through a series of militias allied with it — Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, and groups in Iraq and Syria it has supported and supplied for years. Even before Hamas’s attack last Oct. 7, these groups had kept up a steady stream of small-bore attacks on Israel and on occasion the Persian Gulf monarchies.

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