Abstract
War in West Asia is not of choice but compulsions at various levels— along overdue correction is being attempted by external and regional forces that had procrastinated on delayed actions. There are two ongoing major inflection points that, if continued uncontested, could alter the order that had existed for nearly a century in the world and half a century in the region. On the global stage, for the first time, US’ supremacy was being tested across the entire spectrum of elements of national power; the challenger here was China. The conflict, initially restricted to Iran, has already become regional and is threatening to expand as others are being driven to either fulfil commitment of alliances and partnerships or the governments will be strained to take measures as the economy and the food security will be threatened. It will be years even after the war stops, for the world to recover from the spillover effects of the war and achieve economic stability. Hence, the Iran-centred conflict is representative of the global and regional systems under stress, wherein global rivalry and regional insecurity intersect reaching respective inflection points of “now or never”. Therefore, in this “war of compulsions” no actor can easily off-ramp without incurring unacceptable strategic costs.
Keywords: US-Israel-Iran Conflict, China, Economic Instability, Regional Escalation, US-China Rivalry
