WEST-ASIA CRISIS: DEBATE
Fragmented Multi-polarity and the Collapse of Coercive Diplomacy: A Social Constructivist Analysis of the 2026 Iran Crisis

By : Shubhda Chaudhary

Page No: 281-307

Abstract
The joint United States–Israel military campaign against Iran, designated Operation Epic Fury and launched on 28 February 2026, stands as one of the most significant failures of coercive diplomacy in the post-Cold War era. This essay employs a social constructivist framework to analyse the multilateral diplomatic theatrics surrounding the crisis, arguing that the outbreak of the crisis reflects not a lack of diplomatic effort but rather the structural incapacity of a fragmented multipolar order to prioritise collective negotiated outcomes over illegal unilateral military actions.

The essay begins by questioning the terminology used to describe the ongoing crisis and its etymological origins. It examines the factors that led to the crisis, and how performative diplomacy has disrupted the global architecture of inter-subjectivity and shared meanings. Additionally, it explores the roles of mediators, such as Oman, Egypt, Turkiye, and Pakistan, as well as the structural rhetoric of Russia and China. The essay also discusses the pragmatic reasons behind India’s conspicuous absence from mediation efforts during its BRICS Presidency, along with the lingering colonial and imperial perspectives of the UK and France regarding energy security, and Germany’s Holocaust guilt which hindered any significant breakthroughs — although, perhaps, this was never intended. While

the role of the United Nations is acknowledged, the essay deliberately avoids a detailed focus on its various resolutions, which often carry optics and threats rather than binding action, thus highlighting the institution’s lack of moral, legal, or enforcement capacity.

The essay also questions how diplomacy has been weaponised, its ethics eroded, and how the geopolitical appetite for more wars and crises has grown. It asks whether the US-Israeli war on Iran sets a template for the future world order that academia cannot easily extrapolate. In conclusion, the essay deliberately adopts a Socratic approach to provoke thought, aiming to create an intersection of thought and praxis, and perhaps effect change, however small it may be.

Author:
Shubhda Chaudhary, founder of Middle East Insights Platform, Ph.D. (JNU), and an M.A. from the University of Westminster, UK.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/IFAJ.2025.20.4.1