Friday Focus: A historic week in geopolitics signals the unravelling of America’s global dominance

April 10, 2026
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Friday Focus: A historic week in geopolitics signals the unravelling of America’s global dominance

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Janice and Rudyard believe this war was a strategic defeat for the U.S. with Iran now in control of a chokepoint through which 25% of the world’s energy flows. Is this the end of freedom of navigation in international waters? Iran is proposing a toll for passing through the Strait of Hormuz using cryptocurrency which could erode an important U.S. strategic chokepoint: the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. Meanwhile America’s major allies – NATO members, Asian countries and the Gulf States – have lost confidence in America’s ability to protect them. How will China take advantage of America’s strategic blunder? Can J.D. Vance use this conflict to advance his own political ambitions? And will the U.S. make serious concessions to Iran about tolls, sanctions, and enriched uranium? This week, geopolitics shifted beneath our feet—and it may mark the start of America’s decline.

To read Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s New York Times situation room account of how Trump made the decision to war with Iran, click here.

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