The core issue behind the new US sanctions against Iran is not merely economic; it is part of a larger competition over the future of the world order. While the US remains an economic superpower with considerable tools for exerting pressure, the world today is no longer unipolar. Therefore, the plan to completely blockade the Iranian economy faces a fundamental obstacle: the US can exert pressure, but translating that pressure into concrete results requires global cooperation; and in the current climate, such cooperation is more difficult to achieve than in the past. Perhaps the most important reality is that the era of using sanctions as an unrestricted weapon is nearing its end. In this new world, economic power only works when combined with political legitimacy, international cooperation, and the endorsement of other stakeholders; and today, the US is more constrained by this new reality than ever before.
