The End of Managed Escalation in the Gulf (warontherocks.com)

• U.S.-Israeli war exposes failure of deterrence
• Iran's gray-zone strategy broken
• Gulf states face new security reality

"The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has exposed the failure of the deterrence model that governed the Gulf for decades. Iran relied on missiles, proxies, and nuclear latency, while the U.S. underwrote Gulf security without direct war. That world is breaking down, and the two-week ceasefire is a sign of this collapse."