The U.S. war with Iran has had political, economic, and military implications that spread far beyond the Middle East. We asked five experts to assess how the war with Iran has affected U.S. bilateral relations with key countries that illustrate some of the global ramifications: South Korea, India, Ukraine, France, and the United Kingdom.Read more below. Jenny Town Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center and the Director of 38 NorthSouth Korea has resisted aiding U.S. military operations to forcefully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, pledging other forms of political and logistical support instead. This has, at times, drawn harsh criticism from President Donald Trump. It has also sparked debate in South Korea about what its evolving role as a global actor should be and what defines “Korean security” beyond the peninsula. At the same time, several developments in the Iran war have further undermined U.S. extended deterrence assurances to South Korea. In particular, the unilateral redeployment of Patriot batteries from South Korea to the Middle East was a jarring example of what strategic flexibility of U.S. Forces Korea could look like in practice. This has exacerbated anxieties of how a future Taiwan contingency might play out — tying up U.S. military forces and assets and leaving South Korea to fight largely on its own against potential simultaneous North Korean aggression. Moreover, the U.S. willingness to make bilateral deals with Iran to end the war — sidelining Israel in the process — has been foreboding of how Washington may weigh South Korea’s interests against its own in a Korean contingency. Tanvi Madan Senior Fellow in the Center for Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings InstitutionNew Delhi has little desire to see Tehran develop nuclear weapons, but few in India supported the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes. The subsequent conflict has had adverse effects on India’s energy and maritime security, for its economy, and for Indians in the Gulf states and on vessels traversing
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The U.S. war with Iran has had political, economic, and military implications that spread far beyond the Middle East. We asked five experts to assess how the war with Iran has affected U.S. bilateral relations with key countries that illustrate some of the global ramifications: South Korea, India, Ukraine, France, and the United Kingdom.Read more below. Jenny Town Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center and the Director of 38 NorthSouth Korea has resisted aiding U.S. military operations to forcefully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, pledging other forms of political and logistical support instead. This has, at times, drawn harsh criticism from President Donald Trump. It has also
