Russia in Global Affairs

A military campaign is easy to start; it is much more difficult to end—especially when initial goals remain unachieved. This is precisely the situation in which the U.S. found itself after it had failed to crush Iran with bombing.

The strikes launched by Israel and the United States against Iran, coupled with the Iranian retaliation against the Gulf states, have had a profound impact on BRICS. Certain analysts have rightly identified the emergence of a BRICS crisis. Specifically, this is driven by the exchange of hostilities between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); more broadly, it stems from the group's inability to resolve this friction. Within this context, India's presidency of BRICS plays a pivotal role in attempting to normalise relations within the bloc. The critical question remains: is India prepared to rise to this challenge? 

Iran is exploiting U.S. strategic cul-de-sac: Trump can move neither forward nor backward, and is now exactly where Tehran wants him to be. The lesson of history, applicable to all asymmetric wars, is: “If strategists have little or no confidence that a prospective war can be kept short, then arguably the only prudent policy is not to fight it at all.”

BRICS must be based on ‘soft institutionalization,’ seeking not a unified alliance, but a flexible multi-level structure.

The age in which superior force could reliably produce the desired political outcome is passing and wars are becoming more complex, their consequences less controllable, and their results less linear. The US and Israel may still possess overwhelming military power, but Iran has shown is that this no longer guarantees victory.

Iran’s resilience in countering the Israeli-U.S. aggression launched by Trump and Netanyahu in anticipation of Tehran’s rapid collapse, has placed it in two strategic traps deliberately set by Israel and the U.S.

The unprovoked attack by the United States and Israel on Iran on 28 February 2026 marked the beginning of a new phase in the crisis that has gripped the Middle East almost continuously for several years. Its origins lie in the combination of the extraordinary complexity of regional politics and the intervention of the world’s wealthiest and most heavily armed power.

Donald Trump has declared the start of a new “golden age” in the Middle East after announcing a ceasefire with Iran. The war, at least for now, has been paused. And while predictions are always risky with this White House, there is at least a chance that the fighting will not immediately resume.

No matter how the Iran conflict ends, its outcome will have far-reaching consequences. Is force almighty? How far is it ready to go to prove that it is almighty? And what will be left after that?