From Epstein files to Iran war: How the global conversation suddenly shifted

The second round of Epstein-related documents released in early March may have been one of the biggest political stories of the year.

It seemed poised to dominate the headlines for weeks, including material from an FBI interview interpreted by some as alleging sexual misconduct involving a sitting U.S. president.

Instead, like the United States and Israel, the story died down in about 48 hours. Released The Iranian attack drew attention from around the world.

The decline in public interest is measurable.

Google Trends data tracking global searches for “Epstein files” over the past three months showed a steady increase through January and the end of February, peaking around key public moments.

However, in the last days of February, the trend drops off sharply, with searches decreasing almost vertically.

The March file was, in almost every respect, more politically damaging than its predecessor.

But the new set of files released March 5, which included documents the Justice Department had previously improperly withheld, was only a portion of what was released on January 30. Mass release.

According to Ulvi Keser, a professor of international relations at Final International University, the main reason for carrying out attacks across the Middle East is primarily the need to prevent the Epstein files from being fully exposed.

“American history has long been a history of conspiracies. If you look at 200 years of history, you won’t find any country with so many assassination attempts on sitting presidents,” Keser says. TRT World.

“The United States has spent months, even years, hesitating to attack Iran, unable to accurately assess Iran’s military capabilities, using Ukraine as a testing ground to gauge Russia’s military capabilities, and likewise forcing Israel to advance in the Middle East to probe Iran’s defenses without achieving the desired results.”

“The United States still has serious doubts about Iran, and then they suddenly launch a very bold attack against the region. This alone shows that something else is going on beneath the surface,” Keser adds.

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Coincidence or calculation?

The idea that military escalation can serve as a tool for domestic news management is not a fringe theory. In political science, there is a name, rightAnd it has a well-documented history.

For decades, political scientists have described how leaders facing domestic pressure, scandal, economic instability or falling approval ratings can turn to foreign military action to reset the public dialogue.

Now, some analysts argue that war with Iran fits this pattern with uncomfortably precise precision.