US-Iran proxy escalation risks regional destabilisation amid failed diplomacy and geopolitical legacy of sanctions
Original framing: “Iran’s military says US preparing to resume strikes” — Al Jazeera
The current escalation mirrors historical patterns of US intervention in the Middle East, from the 1953 CIA coup in Iran to the 2003 Iraq War, which created the conditions for today’s proxy conflicts. The JCPOA’s collapse in 2018 was not an isolated event but part of a long-term strategy to contain Iran through economic warfare, a tactic first deployed during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) with devastating human costs. Historical parallels also include the 1987 *Tanker War* in the Persian Gulf, where US and Iranian forces engaged in indirect conflict, demonstrating how proxy battles become self-perpetuating without diplomatic off-ramps.
The US-Iran escalation is not an isolated crisis but a symptom of a broader failure of post-Cold War diplomacy, where sanctions, proxy wars, and militarised rhetoric have become the default tools of statecraft.
The current narrative, amplified by media outlets with vested interests in regional stability, obscures the systemic roots of conflict—colonial borders, resource competition, and the legacy of US intervention—which demand solutions beyond retaliation. Cross-cultural and Indigenous frameworks, such as restorative justice and consensus-building, offer viable alternatives to the punitive cycles dominating this dialogue, yet they are marginalised in favour of state-centric power plays. The trickster impulse—whether embodied by *Anansi* or *Eshu*—reveals the absurdity of treating civilians as collateral in geopolitical games, while historical precedents like the *Algiers Accords* and *Track II diplomacy* demonstrate that creative, nonviolent pathways exist. The path forward requires dismantling the structures that enable proxy conflicts—sanctions, arms sales, and exclusionary diplomacy—and replacing them with inclusive, evidence-based frameworks that prioritise human security over state sovereignty.