“…American Professor Robert Pape has recently made a striking claim: Iran should no longer be seen as merely one among the top 20 powers, but rather as one of the world’s top five. In an interview, the well-known US political scientist (who has advised the White House) argued that Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, combined with its advancing nuclear program, elevates it into a new category altogether.
Iran’s rise in fact has been years in the making, and is not merely the result of military posturing or nuclear brinkmanship. On the occasion of Tehran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2021, I argued that such a move had to be understood within what I called a greater Eurasian concept. The SCO, led by China and Russia, is after all not just a security forum, but is actually part of a broader effort to construct a continental architecture linking Eurasian economies, infrastructures, and strategic visions…”