In the contemporary geostrategic landscape, the concept of national security has undergone a radical transformation. It is no longer sufficient to measure a State's power exclusively through military projection, nuclear deterrence or control of the skies. We live in the era of hybrid warfare, a complex and multidimensional dimension of which economic conflict is fully a part and in which the true security architecture of a country is also grounded in its economic resilience: the capacity of a State system to absorb financial shocks, circumvent trade blockades, maintain stable supply chains and resist systemic sanctions without collapsing.

The recent economic offensive launched by the United States, dubbed with the formula Economic Fury and led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, represents the most striking case study of this strategic transition. Rather than a simple sequence of traditional sanctions, it is a true financial and commercial one-two punch aimed at striking currency flows, banks, maritime insurance companies and energy arteries such as the Strait of Hormuz. Washington's stated objective is the total isolation of Tehran to make its trade impossible.

Modern strategy partly replaces traditional bombing with the financial siege typical of hybrid warfare: fewer bombs, more banks; fewer military targets, more blocked ports and transactions. However, Tehran's reaction demonstrates that unilateral pressure quickly encounters its structural limits.

China and Russia: The Systemic Antagonists and the Axis of Resistance

The Economic Fury doctrine does not operate in a geopolitical vacuum. Faced with U.S. pressure, rival powers such as China and Russia have demonstrated how economic resilience can be built through networks of alternative alliances. Tehran is actively preparing to resist this offensive within global hybrid warfare, anchoring itself firmly on the solid anti-Western axis with Beijing and Moscow.

As highlighted by international experts on the Washington Post, much of Iran's economic longevity lies in the crucial support of Moscow and Beijing:

• Russian military and technological support: Russia supplies drones and intelligence support through satellite imagery, enabling Iran to strike strategic targets.
• Chinese financial and commercial anchoring: China supplies Tehran with critical chemicals for missile programs and guarantees the economic and financial exchange vital to prevent the regime's collapse.
• Integration into BRICS: Iran is integrating into the economic circuits promoted by Russia and China (including the BRICS New Development Bank and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization) to build an economic and political order alternative to the U.S. dollar.

As Behnam Ben Taleblu explains: "The Islamic Republic aspires to formal integration into the economic orders promoted by Russia and China, which aim to counter the U.S. dollar as much as American power and influence."

The Limit of the Unilateral Path: Why America Needs Europe

To the many skeptics and uninformed, this new U.S. approach clearly demonstrates that modern conflicts are not only military, but move entirely on the terrain of hybrid warfare. Europe's and the West's antagonists move much faster than democracies, which must laboriously gain internal consensus and are highly vulnerable to cognitive and ideological warfare.

Faced with this compact front, Washington's solitary and muscular strategy shows evident cracks. Unilateral sanctions, while devastating, can be circumvented when a country can rely on global sponsors of the magnitude of Beijing and Moscow.

This is where all strategic myopia falls away: in economic terms Europe is neither a dwarf nor a worm, but a giant, and its alliance proves not only useful, but decisive. Democracies work by playing as a team: the unilateral path and the imposition of coercive measures without deep coordination produce limited and short-lived results. The United States must understand that only by teaming up with a cohesive Europe — a true economic, commercial and technological colossus — can victory emerge from global systemic competition. Economic and democratic security is indivisible: either you win together, cooperating closely in the architecture of Western security, or you succumb fragmented in the face of a new alternative order.