The maniac and the hegemon

When the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran in February 2026 – killing its Supreme Leader, closing the Strait of Hormuz and triggering the worst global energy crisis in half a century – the world watched a superpower act without allies, without a UN mandate and without Congressional approval.

For Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister, the conclusion is stark: the postwar liberal order that America built and profited from for eight decades is being dismantled by the very nation that created it.

In a wide-ranging conversation on The Discussion, Carr assesses the Iran war's strategic failures, the fracturing of the Western alliance, and what a rising China is quietly learning from all of it. He also turns his attention to Taiwan – and asks whether a world without American moral authority is a world anybody should want.