Foreign Affairs says post-1991 US primacy is unraveling amid new global power dynamics

WASHINGTON, United States — Foreign Affairs magazine argues that the era of US unipolarity that opened with the 1991 Gulf War is coming to an end, pointing to Iran's standoff around the Strait of Hormuz as evidence of eroding American military dominance. In a report titled "Iran and the new rules of global power," the publication writes that Operation Desert Storm demonstrated US military superiority, but conflicts around the waterway have exposed its limits. The report says globalization has placed precision warfare technology within reach of many actors, weakening Washington's ability to impose its will at low cost. It notes that Iran's threats to commercial shipping have fostered a perception that US naval power no longer guarantees security, and that joint US-Israeli airstrikes have only temporarily neutralized Iranian systems. The magazine cites the downing of a $35 million Apache helicopter by a $20,000 Shahid drone as a symbol of American forces' inability to counter cheap drone threats. Rising transport costs, higher insurance premiums and the inability to secure trade routes through US intervention are also flagged. The same dynamics, the report warns, could surface in other critical chokepoints such as the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca and the Red Sea, where the vulnerabilities created by globalization cannot be resolved by military power alone.