Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz Conflict Directly Impacts the Global Economy—Especially China

Contemporary geopolitics often seems to orbit around the statements and impulses of figures such as Donald Trump, whose relationship with institutional predictability has always been, at best, fragile. When decisions with global impact are made without coordination, without consultation, or even in contradiction with specialists — such as his former counterterrorism chief — the international system ceases to operate on rules and begins to react to impulses.

As the conflict in the Middle East intensifies, pressure on the White House also grows to demonstrate strength and deliver concrete results on the international stage. In contexts of war or prolonged instability, governments tend to seek political, military, or diplomatic victories that reinforce their domestic position and external credibility.

The escalation in the Middle East reveals not only a regional conflict, but a structural crisis of the international system, marked by internal fractures in the United States, strategic divergences in Europe, economic contradictions, and the weakening of International Law, demonstrating that power and interests prevail over norms and traditional alliances.

In today’s global landscape, human tragedies are often narrated selectively. Lives from “distant” countries are usually left out of media and political focus, as philosopher Judith Butler pointed out when reflecting on the unequal attribution of “grievability” to victims. Only those who fit the dominant framework—“Western,” Christian, or strategically useful lives—are presented as worthy of compassion, while other deaths remain silenced. 

On June 22, 2025, the United States, under the leadership of Donald Trump, launched direct attacks on three major Iranian nuclear facilities — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The American president described the offensive as a "spectacular success," claiming that the targets were “completely obliterated.” This action represents a critical escalation in the war between Israel and Iran, marking the direct entry of the U.S. into the conflict, and reignites deep questions about the

While rockets fall on Israel and Iran, we now see American bombs targeting the ayatollahs' regime. Meanwhile, Trump gives a speech of false conciliation, hoping the Iranian regime will completely surrender. That will not happen. For the leaders of Iran, Hamas, Israel, and the White House, war is both the beginning and the end of dialogue.

By Júlia Saraiva The United States’ attack on three nuclear facilities marks a turning point in contemporary international politics. This is not just an isolated episode but a move that exposes the progressive collapse of multilateral norms, the erosion of international law, and the dominance of power politics in the conduct of international relations.