The Arab/Iranian Region and the Multipolar Dilemma

ABSTRACT

Since the era of decolonization, the emergence of multipolarity has opened a structural space for developmental autonomy grounded in the sovereign equality of states. This article asks why that opening has coincided with an intensification of unilateral military violence, especially in the Arab/Iranian region, and makes two interconnected theoretical contributions. First, drawing on Dimitrov’s theorization of fascism, it conceptualizes violent unilateralism as the structurally determined response of a declining hegemon whose accumulation model cannot absorb the demonstration effect of sovereign development. Second, combining TWAIL and polycentrism, it argues that people‐centered development becomes durable only in co‐constitution with a new international order founded on sovereign equality. The Arab/Iranian region functions in this article as the case study through which both theoretical contributions are operationalized and tested against evidence. Violent unilateralism operates there through the sequential targeting of the formations of the Axis of Resistance, whereas the difficulty of asserting a collective multipolar position discloses three nested structural tensions—institutional, internal, and strategic—that together constitute what this article terms the multipolar dilemma.