When power becomes a trap: America’s strategic deadlock in Iran

Power, in theory, expands choices. In practice, it can do the opposite. The stronger a state becomes, the more it risks becoming trapped by the very instruments it relies upon. Nowhere is this paradox more visible than in the United States’ confrontation with Iran—a crisis that exposes not American strength, but the limits of its strategic imagination. A recent analysis by Vali Nasr in Foreign Affairs (27 March 2026) makes this point with unusual clarity: Washington has no good options left. What remains is a narrowing corridor of decisions in which every path carries escalating costs, diminishing returns, and the constant risk of unintended consequences. This is not simply a policy failure. It is the outcome of a long-standing strategic […]