EDITORIAL
The International Imperialist Order Is Unravelling

May 18, 2026

The U.S. seems to have deeply miscalculated in launching its war on Iran. The war is not going well for the U.S. And it appears to be spelling the end of the post-WWII international order.

Whatever reason the U.S. had for attacking Iran at this precise moment (and no one should think that it’s because of the whims of one man or the direction of a much smaller country, Israel), the U.S. and the world economy are now in a position that they were not in a few months ago. The Strait of Hormuz is now effectively closed, and this closure is controlled by Iran. Before the war, the Strait was open and ships passed freely. Now, even after weeks of bombing that killed much of the Iranian regime’s leadership, Iran still has the capability to attack any ships passing through the Strait, and any other Gulf country, should the U.S. decide to bomb Iran again.

The U.S. seems to be left without any good choice as far as advancing its interests is concerned.

Either it could walk away and declare “victory,” leaving Iran in control of the Strait; or it could resume bombing Iran, risking a retaliation on ships and oil facilities in the Gulf; or it could invade with ground troops—starting a war that could last for years.

Any which way, the damage to the world economy will be, and already is, irrevocable. And U.S. capitalism, while asserting itself, at the same time demonstrates its limits.

Beyond that, the rest of the world is now left to wonder what to expect of the U.S. Since WWII, the U.S. has set itself up as the cop of the world, the force that would police the international imperialist order for all of the smaller imperialist powers. They all got rich, at the expense of the rest of the world, with the U.S. at the helm.

Now, the U.S. government has openly declared that it will no longer play that role for the rest of the great powers. It has openly told them that they are on their own.

This turn has been a long time coming. It started before Trump came into office, and in fact it’s baked into the workings of capitalism itself. The system produces capitalist classes based in different countries, depending on their own nation states to advance their interests, each with their own individual armed forces built to do so. Biden made his own moves in this process with the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which among other things was a protectionist boondoggle for U.S. and other companies to build inside the U.S. and receive lots of government money for doing so. This was a veiled attack against manufacturers based in other countries. Trump just replaced the carrot with the stick when he started implementing tariffs on much of the world, including U.S. allies.

European and Asian countries, supposedly U.S. allies, are left wondering how they will get the oil that they need out of the Persian Gulf—and not just oil, but fertilizer, plastics, minerals, and much else that comes through the Strait of Hormuz.

They seem to have two choices now: They can negotiate with the regime in Iran; or they can build up their own navies and start to challenge that impasse in their own national interests, risking a wider war and eventually even conflicts between each other for control or rights through the Strait and other choke points for supply chains around the world.

This is only one reason why this conflict can be seen as the flashpoint for a wider war and potentially the next world war.

The U.S. (and Israeli) attack on Iran seems to have called the question on the whole international order. If so, there is no going back.

Trump keeps telling us that the war is over … but if Iran doesn’t reopen the Strait, he’ll start again to bomb them back to the Stone Age … or he has a deal with Iran that will reopen the Strait … or none of that matters, and the U.S. can survive on its own oil production. Blah blah blah. A new thing every day.

Trump clearly has no answer to the dilemma confronting the U.S. ruling class, the dilemma now tying up the world economy and pushing it to a massive recession or worse. A dilemma that he and the U.S. state forced upon the world.

And, in the middle of all this, we can see how much Trump seems to care about it—as he headed off to China to be feted by Xi Jinping in a massive state visit, traveling the country and receiving gifts of rose seeds from Xi (to be planted in the now paved-over White House Rose Garden?)

Trump himself may not care. He may just be focused on the next shiny thing that makes him feel important. But the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, will suffer the consequences of this growing conflict between the great imperialist powers.