Trump outlined a deliberate plan in his first administration (2018) to use US military power to enforce dollarization and control of US financial markets as the primary mechanism to sustain US balance-of-payments dominance, replacing the gold standard system that collapsed in 1971.

The petrodollar agreement of 1974-1975 guaranteed that OPEC could charge any price for oil and would recycle oil earnings into US financial markets (stocks and bonds), creating the mechanism for US hegemony after the end of the gold standard.

Trump's strategy requires controlling international transportation—both maritime shipping routes and overland pipelines—to prevent rivals from exporting oil and to force all trade to pass through US-controlled chokepoints.

The second monopoly the US seeks to control is information technology and computerization, with Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain investing billions in US tech stocks and AI data centers, but these stocks are declining because these companies cannot build the required infrastructure in the US due to insufficient electricity and water resources.

From 1971 to recently, US military spending abroad was recycled back into the US through foreign central banks purchasing Treasury securities and, more recently, through foreign private investors buying US stocks and bonds, primarily funding the US stock market which has been driven up mainly on debt.

Iran focused its bombing on Amazon's information technology investment in Bahrain as part of a strategy to sever the economic and financial symbiosis between the US and Arab OPEC monarchies, preventing these countries' oil revenues from being invested in US AI infrastructure and preventing their hearts from 'following the money' into American partnerships.

Trump proposed imposing tolls on the Strait of Hormuz under the guise of charging OPEC countries for US military protection, claiming the US would extract 20% of the value of oil exports as toll revenue, representing an explicit violation of international law of the sea that prohibits tolls on international waters except for grandfathered cases.

After Rubio's objection, Trump backpedaled and announced a new arrangement where OPEC Arab countries would invest in US infrastructure and AI centers domestically rather than pay tolls directly, serving the same function of extracting and recycling oil export revenues into US control.

The US destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines and is now using NATO allies in the Baltic to prevent Russian oil exports through the Latvian port of Ventspils, violating UN law of the sea to block Russian trade while preventing Russia from accessing independent export routes.

Europe is not acting in its economic self-interest by subordinating itself to US dominance; European countries need inexpensive energy to power their industry and avoid deindustrialization, but instead accept higher-priced US liquefied natural gas and military dependence, resulting in economic decline.

The US has lifted sanctions on exporting advanced computer chips to the UAE specifically to incentivize Emirati investment in US AI infrastructure and data centers, effectively selling military technology to achieve financial partnership.

The durability of the US strategy fundamentally depends on whether semi-feudal Arab monarchies can survive as US clients; these regimes are increasingly unpopular as their populations are Palestinian, Indian, or face extreme inequality, creating conditions for political upheaval like occurred after World War I.

After the current war, there may be a historical moment for progressive political transformation in the Middle East—either the Sykes-Picot redrawn borders are finally dismantled and replaced with modern representative governments, or the region follows Japan, Britain, and Germany into permanent satellite status.

The fundamental question determining success or failure of US neo-imperial strategy is whether the US can prevent the rest of the world from acting in its own economic self-interest and developing independently, or whether countries will pursue autonomous development and abandon subservience.

This military escalation is existential on both sides—the US is fighting to maintain global hegemony while Russia, Iran, and China are fighting for national survival—ensuring the conflict will continue to be very destructive and create massive collateral damage to the global economy, African economies, and the global South through food crisis.

The 2026 year will be a 'world historical year' when all the dynamics discussed (oil supply disruptions, fertilizer shortages, monetary system breakdown, transportation control, political regime collapse) come together to create a systemic crisis.

The US violated the Iran nuclear deal memorandum of understanding by never intending to actually fulfill it; specifically, the US instructed the UAE to refuse to return $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets that was supposed to be the token first payment to signal good faith.

Iran argues that under the Law of the Sea, a state in war can defend itself by controlling waters used to launch attacks against it; since Oman hosts US military bases from which missiles and bombs are sent into Iranian territory, Iran has the legal right to control the Strait of Hormuz.

Russian negotiations with China over the Power of Siberia pipeline price have stalled because Russia recognizes that oil prices will spike due to US-induced Middle East conflict and supply destruction, but China refuses to pay the higher prices Russia is now justified in demanding.

The US destroyed 20% of Qatar's global helium production capacity (valued at $5 billion to install and took years to build) when Iran bombed Qatar's helium facilities, causing a helium shortage that will last years and giving the US and China a monopoly that they are using as leverage for international control.