The current crisis with Iran has lessons that will resonate well beyond the shores of the Gulf.

Countries like Russia and China will see in it the attestation of their belief that the West currently has no answer to hybrid warfare, the blend of military and civilian actions for political effect.

Iranian naval forces are very weak militarily, comprised mostly of machine gun-toting raiding craft and a few frigates which, if they deployed in anything other than a peaceful way, would be destroyed by the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet.

So instead Iran is employing hybrid warfare, which renders largely irrelevant ‘hard’ military power and which shows up how inadequately prepared the West is to meet such challenges.

Hybrid warfare mixes conventional and unconventional military forces with disinformation, assassination, economics, manipulation of social media, use of religion, plus other state-sponsored activities that seek to undermine an enemy without engaging in ‘traditional’ war.