The USA's international influence Challenges to US influence: Other global challenges

Elsewhere in the world the USA is also facing challenges to its dominant position. This includes: .

• Iran - Iran continues to pursue an anti-American/western agenda by actively supporting groups which the US and the UK have classed as terrorist organisations. Concerns remain that Iran continues to seek to develop nuclear weapons despite US-led international sanctions.
• North Korea - As a nuclear state, North Korea represents a direct challenge to the US. Despite long-standing US sanctions and repeated warnings about the development of its nuclear programme, North Korea continues to defy the US. Although there was a short period in 2019 when Trump was President which saw the US and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet on the North-South Korea border, that time of cooperation has long passed. In 2024, President Biden is quite clear that any attempt by North Korea to use nuclear weapons would see the North Korea leadership wiped out.
• Yemen - The US has also used it military power to launch retaliatory attacks against Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. In response to attacks on international shipping throughout 2023 in the Red Sea from Yemen, the US and other allied countries destroyed several militant bases (2024). There are fears that US action may result in a widening of conflict in the Middle East.