Over the weekend, President Donald Trump requested that Britain, France, Japan, South Korea and China send warships to the Middle East to help him reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has come to a standstill because of Iranian attacks on ships in and near the waterway. He also issued a vague threat to NATO allies who didn’t join in the effort, saying that it would be “very bad for the future of NATO” if they refused to help secure the strait.
But those countries and more American allies aren’t rushing to Trump’s rescue. They’re either openly rebuffing his demands or issuing vague, noncommittal statements. For the moment, there is no prospect of a U.S.-led coalition to help resolve Iran’s domination of a waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil reaches global markets. That Trump failed to anticipate this scenario illustrates yet another way in which his war in Iran is as foolish as it is immoral.
Trump’s isolation is a crisis of his own making.
Despite skyrocketing oil prices, other countries are either hesitant or opposed to entering the war of aggression the U.S. and Israel began more than two weeks ago. Here’s how some of the major players have been responding:
- Germany’s minister of defense said, “This is not our war; we did not start it,” and added that Germany wanted a “swift end to the conflict, but sending more warships to the region will likely not help achieve that.”
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “Let me be clear: that won’t be, and it’s never been envisioned to be, a NATO mission.” He also said he was working with allies on a plan to reopen the strait, but said the U.K. would not be “drawn into wider war.”
- Japan’s defense minister said, “In the current Iran situation, we are not at the moment considering issuing a maritime security operation.”
- China has deflected, declining to say whether it would accept Trump’s request, and adding all parties are required to share an energy supply.
- The European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said, “It is in our interest to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, and that’s why we are also discussing what we can do in this regard.” Though on Tuesday, Kalla told Reuters, “Nobody is ready to put their people in harm’s way in the Strait of Hormuz.”
- France, according to The New York Times, hasn’t taken a public position on Trump’s request, but French President Emmanuel Macron “has said that he would be willing to use the French navy to escort ships but only if the conflict stabilized.”
Trump’s isolation is a crisis of his own making. Just as he hardly made a case to the American public about why the U.S. should go to war with Iran — or what he wanted to do after he started it — he also never made a case to the international community.
None of these countries want to endure exorbitant oil prices. But they are also understandably disinclined to incur expenses and potential casualties to secure a waterway that was functioning normally until Trump decided to whimsically begin his “little excursion” in Iran. Doubly so, likely, because it’s unclear if such an effort would be necessary, since Trump’s impulsive decision to start this war could just as impulsively be reversed. Why would other states risk resources and legitimize Trump’s war when the whole thing could wrap up in a moment? And triply so, because Trump can’t even keep his story straight on whether he thinks the U.S. needs assistance. Who wants to work with a mad emperor?
Trump’s flat-footedness on securing the Strait of Hormuz is remarkable, and it’s a symptom of his broader lack of preparedness for this war of choice he launched. It’s long been understood that this waterway is a strategically critical choke point for oil shipping in the region, and yet Trump had no plan for dealing with this. There is no evidence that Trump understands the first thing about Iran or the Middle East, and his inner circle may not have gamed this out, in part because he appears to have pushed aside the people who were more likely to highlight this potential scenario. CNN, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, reported that “Trump’s preference of leaning on a tight circle of close advisers in his national security decision making had the effect of sidelining interagency debate over the potential economic fallout if Iran were to respond to U.S.-Israeli strikes by closing the strait.” Trump wants to have his cake and eat it, too, on Iran. He swaggered arrogantly into this war without regard for international law or regard for the rest of the world, exploiting the U.S.’ capabilities as a military superpower to venture in only alongside Israel. Now that things have gotten messy, he wants the rest of the world to get involved and help bail him out. It’s possible that other countries could at some point get warships involved in trying to reopen Hormuz because it is in their economic interests. If they predict the war will take considerable time, it might force their hand. Sustained high oil prices could have catastrophic consequences for the global economy — and no government wants to preside over an energy crisis, even if it not of their own making. But if they were to get involved, it wouldn’t necessarily happen in a manner that aligns with Trump’s priorities. No matter how this plays out, this mad scramble only underscores how Trump’s war is not just wicked, but almost incomprehensibly dumb.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy. 
