Oil, Power and Pretence in the Age of Trump’s West Asia Conflict
The old saying goes: old habits die hard. It is an apt description of political stubbornness — and few leaders embody it quite like Donald Trump. Even when events refuse to cooperate, the performance of authority continues. The declarations remain grand; the reality, increasingly complicated. Take the present confrontation with Iran. Washington appeared to assume that Tehran could be coerced the way weaker economies have been pressured in the past, such as Venezuela. But Iran is not Venezuela. For more than two decades it has prepared precisely for such a confrontation — militarily, economically, and politically. Its power structure is unusual: the elected president operates under the authority of the Supreme Leader, currently Khamenei, and the formidable Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps answers directly to him rather than to the civilian government. That arrangement ensures that external pressure rarely produces quick surrender. Even while Iranian leaders spoke conciliatory words to ...
