The World on the Brink of the Stone Age: When Trump’s Threat Goes Beyond Iran

When Donald Trump declared in one of his threatening statements that he could, if necessary, “bring Iran back to the Stone Age,” many interpreted the remark merely as a military threat directed at a specific country. Yet the deeper meaning of this statement lies not in its military message but in the political logic that underpins it. The central issue is not whether the United States has the capability to devastate another country; rather, it is what kind of view of the international order makes such a threat possible—or even appear normal. If one examines the trajectory of U.S. foreign policy in recent years, it becomes increasingly clear that the threat of “returning a country to the Stone Age” reflects […]