West Asia today finds itself in a deeply uncertain moment. A conditional ceasefire has held for months, but the war isn’t truly over. The Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, even without large-scale fighting at sea. The United States and Iran still trade periodic strikes. Israel is still operating beyond its borders. Iran has suffered unprecedented losses. The Gulf states are increasingly divided. And Gaza, once the focus of the world’s attention, has slipped from th

The war in West Asia has accelerated the unravelling of the post-Cold War order. For all its contradictions, this was an order that generated unprecedented wealth and lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty. But it struggled to reconcile power with principle and universality with diversity. It also produced shifts in the global distribution of power that it has been unable to adapt to. The question, therefore, is not whether the old order will endure. It will not. The real

Over the weekend, renewed conflict in the Middle East was a stark reminder of how fragile the international order has become, and what happens when major powers begin to bend the very rules they helped create. For countries caught in between, the space for strategic comfort is shrinking. Nowhere is this tension clearer than in Europe’s relationship with China. Beijing’s rise is no longer a projection; it is a structural reality. From advanced manufacturing and green technolog