Liberal Institutionalism in Crisis: Reassessing the Iran‐West Nuclear Standoff Amid the 2025 Israel–Iran War

ABSTRACT The Israel‐Iran war of 2025 has changed the geopolitical face of the Middle East, not only bringing up the issue of nuclear proliferation, but also putting international diplomacy to the test. This essay assesses the performance of liberal institutionalism based on the latest conflict, paying special attention to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as the main institutional mechanism that once carried the promise of peaceful nuclear interaction. The JCPOA was based on the liberal notions of multilateralism and cooperation, reciprocity and institutional oversights; its collapse raises serious doubts regarding the usefulness of these tools in nuclear conflict management. This essay provides background information and assesses how the 2025 conflict will influence the regional and global balance. It then employs the theoretical perspective of liberal institutionalism to observe the direction taken by the Iran‐West relationship to gauge whether international institutions continue to have the ability to forestall state level security dilemmas as they have led to an absence of open‐war conflicts. This study develops a critical analysis of institutional failure to tame the conflict and offers some ideas for understanding its scope and future direction.