Imagining A World Without Russia & Iran
As the strength of both regimes look increasingly suspect, through military losses, protests, and increasingly bad decisions, let’s examine how their absence would affect the world (dis)order.
Almost every conflict in the Middle East and North Africa has seen one or both of them involved, for better or worse. Usually worse. Almost always supporting despotic regimes or generals — like Libya’s Haftar — trying to start one.
Both Russia and Iran have been propping up Syria’s dictator Assad, who has killed untold numbers of his own people to preserve his multi-generational rule. Without his puppet masters, the only significant players are NATO allies and Jihadists, a problem for sure but much less of a clusterf*** than the current situation. The biggest issue then becomes pacifying Turkey and the Jihadists they’ve empowered to fight the Kurds. Since Erdoğan has put his country on the brink of economic collapse, that issue may also resolve itself in due time. If liberal democracies become the only major foreign player left in Syria, it makes it that much easier for a society that respects human rights and freedoms to rebuild from the ashes. By no means is it a guarantee, but with the current situation it’s next to impossible.
