Kuala Lampur, May 11 -- The prolonged inability to resolve the conflict in West Asia reveals a sobering reality about the contemporary international system: rebuilding a functioning rules-based order will take far more time than many governments are willing to admit. With each failure to come to a resolution, as happened on May 12 again, dynamics in West Asia portend weak progress, if any, on a Rules-Based Order.

The crisis is no longer simply about Iran, Israel, or the United States. It has evolved into a broader test of whether international law, multilateral diplomacy, and institutional restraint still possess enough legitimacy to prevent geopolitical competition from descending into perpetual instability.

The answer, at least for no...