The most important lesson of tension between Trump and Zelensky for us Iranians: the world should be viewed with a different lens

Muhammad leadership, researcher and sociologist

Last night's verbal tension between Zelensky and Trump is likely to be a turning point in international relations. Trump's position was at odds with the open and public approach and policies of the US government after World War II.

Over the past eighty years, the U.S. government has been working with its media power and soft power to establish international norms as the moral leader of the new world. But now Trump, with a kind of unilateralism and his emphasis on "playing cards" in practice, has shown that he is indifferent to the norms that the United States has been trying to stabilize for decades and knows nothing but power and force, even in the face of war-torn Ukraine.

Now Trump's America seems to be ignoring the norms created by Western governments and World War II conquerors more than ever. This is especially important in the face of international borders, and the Trump administration is openly indifferent to it.

The territorial development and border tensions that were seen among different countries until the first and Second World Wars, and stopped in the New World Order, have now returned to the scene with the neglect of the US government (as the world's largest economic power) towards the borders of Palestine and Ukraine. If in the 19th and 20th centuries AD, access to raw materials and agricultural development was one of the main motivations for the country's development and territorial development, this time, but the motivation for this territorial development is access to oil and gas resources or rare metal mines (such as lithium and graphite), which can completely affect the hegemony of governments, dominate the global supply chain and create competitive advantages over them.

Trump's attempt to dominate Gaza (due to rich gas resources) and dominate Ukrainian mines (due to lithium, graphite and other rare metals that are necessary for the development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence) can be assessed in this regard. Regardless of whether these efforts are fruitful or not, what matters is that the order that was formed after World War II, while the destruction and new relations prevail over the new world.

In this new order, the unity and Bloc of democratic countries is no longer the dominant bloc; rather, Trump's America (which is openly indifferent to democratic values and violations and whose Democratic indicators are declining) is more united with semi-democratic and even authoritarian countries such as Russia, Israel and even the Arabs, and even stands against the democratic countries of Western Europe. As a result, and in parallel with Trump's use of force and hard power, America's soft power will also be weaker.

In this new order, the United Nations, as the most important institution supporting international norms, has lost more importance and place than ever, what was presented as human rights and universal values has become more violated and the world will not resemble the second half of the twentieth century, which will resemble the nineteenth century; an era that colonialism and imperialism, along with nationalism, military competition and the lack of international institutions, describes.

These developments make it necessary to rethink international relations and look at global values and relations with lenses and other glasses. Understanding the world's developments through the valve of international relations in the past eighty years will not be carefully considered, and to define Iran in global relations and strengthen national power, one must look at the world with another lens.

Now the question is, what effect do these developments have on Iran? Although changing the international order may create new opportunities for Iran, the threats posed by it cannot be ignored. One of these threats is to revive the idea of developing a land that could be a threat to Iran. If we accept the hypothesis that this era is similar to the 19th century, then it should be remembered that the 19th century AD was the century of Iran's backwardness and the domination of the Great governments over Iran, the century when Iran was the arena of the Russian and British Thrones and lost valuable lands.

The world order is changing, and it can be said that the international system today is in its most anarchic state in the last eighty years. One of the signs of Trump-Zelensky tension is that in the current state of the international system, the proliferation of medium and small actors increases the likelihood of being sacrificed by large powers. In these circumstances, to preserve and strengthen Iran, one must be open and pessimistic about any idea and design its policies based on this new order by learning from historical experiences and understanding the new international relations accurately.