The U.S. rulers’ bombing of Iranian nuclear sites and then President Donald Trump’s imposition of an Israel-Tehran ceasefire three days later deepened the threat of wider wars, political instability and trade tensions. Washington’s unilateral action — aimed at asserting its economic, political and military predominance in the region — sidelined its “allies” in NATO and the “G7” club, as well as its rivals in Beijing and Moscow.
Moscow’s brutal war against the people of Ukraine — the largest land war in Europe in 80 years — was followed by Middle East conflicts arising since Hamas and Tehran launched their jointly planned pogrom in Israel Oct. 7, 2023. These have deepened the crisis of the imperialist world order that has been dominated by Washington since its bloody victory in World War II.
Washington acts solely to advance its global imperialist interests. This was revealed again in two recent international imperialist summits held before and after the U.S. rulers’ strike on Iran.
The U.S.-dominated NATO alliance summit in The Hague June 24-25 came days after Washington’s attack on Iran, which reinforced the fact the U.S. rulers’ global military machine puts the United States at the top of the imperialist pecking order.
The conference revolved around the allied rivals’ drive to boost their military expenditures. A target of 5% of each country’s total economic output over the next 10 years was agreed to, more than doubling the previous 2% aim from 2014. The “long-term threat posed by Russia,” the need “to provide support to Ukraine,” and fear of new wars in Europe were cited as reasons.
The German rulers, who see Moscow’s expansionism as a danger to their interests, have pledged to reach 3.5% military spending by 2029, forcing a change in the country’s constitutional debt rules. Berlin plans to reintroduce conscription if needed to make its armed forces “the strongest conventional army in Europe.”
Rulers in Europe seek to arm up
Only two European NATO countries are nuclear powers, London and Paris. In the biggest expansion of their nuclear reach in decades, the U.K. rulers ordered from the U.S. a dozen F-35A fighter-bombers that are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Trump hailed the arms buildup by NATO as “a big win for Europe and for actually Western civilization.” But the sharp differences between Washington and the European powers remain.
French President Emmanuel Macron, concerned about defending the French rulers’ place in Europe, complained that the agreement “among allies … to spend more,” and yet “wage trade war against one another,” made no sense. But the fact is this is the logic of the deep antagonisms between imperialist powers, as trade wars pose the threat of shooting wars to come.
While the ruling classes in Europe are moving to step up their armed forces, claiming they’re united while looking over their shoulders at each other, they face real problems. The Wall Street Journal reported they “lack capabilities vital to modern warfare, such as cutting-edge surveillance, long-range precision strike capabilities, advanced air-defense systems and the latest command-and-control equipment.”
Overall, they remain subordinate and dependent on Washington.
Washington looks east
The U.S. rulers want to shift more of their armaments and forces to the Asia-Pacific theater, and have conducted themselves in negotiations with Moscow and Kyiv in a way they hope will win the Russian rulers to a closer alignment with the U.S. Washington’s eyes are fixated on coming confrontations with Beijing.
In the Pacific, the U.S. rulers have sought to deepen collaboration with the imperialist powers there — Japan, Australia and New Zealand, along with South Korea. They’ve stepped up military drills with the Philippines and have sworn to defend Taiwan.
Washington has invited these Asian allies to NATO summits since 2022. However, due to trade and alliance tensions with Washington and Beijing’s military and economic pressures, the heads of government of Tokyo, Seoul and Canberra decided not to attend this year.
The Middle East war crisis also impacted the annual meeting of the G7 group of countries, held in the Canadian Rockies June 16-17. The facade of imperialist unity was disrupted when Trump skipped out on the second day to return to Washington. The leaders of the other six governments — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. — were forced to put off any meaningful discussion on the Ukraine war and global trade issues.
The French president announced he thought Trump’s early G7 departure was needed for him to broker a Middle East ceasefire. Trump snapped back, saying he was aiming for something “much bigger than that.” Four days later, U.S. bunker bombs struck Iranian nuclear sites as the U.S. rulers stepped up efforts to impose their Pax Americana over the region.
Meanwhile, Moscow continues its relentless bombardment of working people in Ukraine’s urban areas. The Vladimir Putin regime continues to pile additional demands on Ukraine as preconditions for discussing any ceasefire. The most recent is demanding no further training of Ukrainian troops in Europe.
The Kremlin issued verbal condemnations against Israeli attacks on Iran and then Washington’s military intervention. But when Putin offered his mediation services to Trump to help Trump reach a ceasefire in the Middle East, the U.S. president bluntly told him to end his own war in Ukraine first.
All of this points to the growing threat of a third imperialist world war, with devastating consequences for working people worldwide.