“Is the Western World Order declining?” asked Prof. Amitav Acharya in our first interaction in the course he is teaching us in Spring 2026, World Order: The Decline of the West and the Rise of the Rest. We were discussing this in the capital of the order, Washington, D.C., where I recently came to study despite facing challenges that began when President Trump took action against student visas. After posing the question and provoking the class’s thinking, Prof. Acharya shared his wisdom.
It happened just a few months ago, when we first met on a snowy afternoon, but in a hot international political situation. I had just enrolled at American University for my Master’s and was surprised by this statement. However, now that I am witnessing the chaos in the Middle East, I am thinking more along the same lines.
The rules-based order, which emerged after World War II, was built on alliances and a shared future for the global world. The United States acted on behalf of the Bretton Woods world in pursuit of collective interests, while allies provided political support in exchange for economic benefits. Nowhere, since the formation of the coalition, did it seem a forced marriage. Even in the wake of, at first, a unilateral action against Iraq in 2003, the NATO partners came to the aid of the United States. Now, the situation seems to be out of hand.
Israel and the United States acted on their own against a sovereign nation, Iran. The leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, was killed in air strikes. This triggered a domino effect in the Middle East. Earlier, when Iran was targeted, it used to hit back, but symbolically, for the consumption of the Iranian domestic audience and to maintain legitimacy for the order.
The calculation in Washington and Tel Aviv may have been similar this time, too. Iran will use force for a while, and then things will return to normal. Each side will claim victory, and it will be the end of the day. However, this time, the equation the United States and Israel calculated was off the mark. Soon, Iran started targeting the U.S. bases in the Middle East. No country was spared from Iran’s missiles.
The chaos in the Middle East is delivering a reality check: the Western-led world order is in decline
Each country in the Middle East hosts United States bases, which can be understood as an endorsement of monarchies. In exchange, each oil-rich country invested economically in the United States' structure, and oil was purchased with dollars, or the petrodollar, as Prof. Saeed explained in the International Political Economy class.
The use of the dollar legitimised the U.S. world order and strengthened it against U.S. rivals like China and the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War. Now, against Iran’s attack, and apart from lip service by the high command in Washington, each Middle East nation is looking out for itself. Historically, this is where allies used to come to give strong backing.
When I tried to ask more about what Prof. Acharya meant by the decline, he said that “the U.S. as a country is there, but the Western alliance is declining.” Now, to put this into a historical perspective for the Middle East region only, the United States carried out Operation Desert Storm against Iraq in 1990 with the help of major allies, then again attacked Iraq for allegedly containing weapons of mass destruction, and then again, allies came to help, but this time, allies are not coming to the U.S. aid. This has to do with the way Washington is treating its partners.
Since assuming office, President Trump has slapped each friendly nation with tariffs and bullied them continuously. Continental Europe and Canada, which are part of the U.S. alliance, initially led the order, obliged, and tried to negotiate with the President, and made some deals. However, each day it seems to be an uphill task.
For continental Europe, the potential purchase of Greenland seems to be the final nail in the coffin, and Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, shared his perspective on the decline of the order at Davos. The “rupture” is the parting of ways with the order. Apart from Israel, no ally is interested in working with Washington, whether on security, technology, or economic matters.
The entire situation in the Middle East goes back to the question posed by Prof. Acharya. The alliance network worked because it was built on shared principles and mutual respect. Moreover, respect and principles were limited to the allies, and in exchange, they provided the United States with all the political support it needed to carry out its global economic and political policies. However, the framework is no longer working for either party.
The military bases in the Middle East were an extension of the promises the United States made to each Gulf country, and everyone in the region relied on the United States’ security guarantees because monarchies are fragile. A single storm can take them over, like in the Arab Spring. Now, they are looking to the United States for help, but the United States' assurances are not materialising, and allies are not coming to the rescue of the big brother. The chaos in the Middle East is delivering a reality check: the Western-led world order is in decline.