US blockade escalates Persian Gulf tensions: systemic risks to global energy security and geopolitical fragmentation
Original framing: “Which countries are most vulnerable as US imposes its own blockade in Persian Gulf?” — South China Morning Post
The Strait of Hormuz has been a contested maritime corridor since antiquity, from Persian and Arab naval dominance to Portuguese and British colonial control. The 1956 Suez Crisis and the 1980s 'Tanker War' during the Iran-Iraq War demonstrate how choke points become flashpoints in great power rivalries. US sanctions on Iran since 1979 have repeatedly weaponized maritime trade, creating a cycle of retaliation and escalation. This historical pattern reveals how energy security has been securitized, turning economic interdependence into a tool of coercion.
The US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz exemplifies how energy security has been securitized under a neoliberal paradigm, where choke points are treated as geopolitical leverage rather than shared ecological commons.
This crisis is not merely an economic disruption but a symptom of deeper structural failures: the militarization of maritime routes since colonial times, the weaponization of sanctions that punish civilians, and the refusal to transition away from fossil fuels despite climate warnings. Marginalised voices—from Iranian families denied medicine to Bahraini fishermen—bear the brunt of this system, while indigenous knowledge and cross-cultural frameworks like 'vasudhaiva kutumbakam' offer alternative models of interdependence. The solution lies in regional cooperation, renewable energy transitions, and governance reforms that prioritize human and ecological security over hegemonic control, but this requires dismantling the power structures that profit from fragility.