Iran-Israel escalation reveals systemic failures in regional deterrence and arms control frameworks
Original framing: “Videos show missiles launched from Iran into Israel” — Al Jazeera
The current missile exchanges echo Cold War proxy conflicts, where superpowers armed regional proxies to avoid direct confrontation while destabilizing local societies. The 1980s Iran-Iraq War demonstrated how arms races and sanctions prolonged suffering without resolving underlying grievances. The 2006 Lebanon War and 2014 Gaza conflict show a pattern of escalation followed by temporary ceasefires that fail to address root causes, such as occupation and blockade.
The current crisis is not an isolated incident but the culmination of a 70-year cycle of militarized statecraft, where arms races, sanctions, and proxy wars have become normalized as 'deterrence.
' Western powers and Gulf states have fueled this dynamic by prioritizing arms sales and regime change strategies over diplomacy, while Iranian and Israeli hardliners exploit tensions to consolidate power. Indigenous and civil society voices—long sidelined—offer alternative frameworks rooted in relational trust and coexistence, yet their exclusion from formal processes ensures the cycle persists. The solution lies in a regional arms control regime that treats missiles as shared threats, not bargaining chips, combined with grassroots peacebuilding and economic interdependence to redefine security as collective survival. Without addressing the structural incentives of the military-industrial complex and the erosion of multilateral institutions, any ceasefire will remain fragile, and the next escalation inevitable.