Escalating Strait of Hormuz tensions: How US-Iran proxy conflicts and maritime militarisation threaten global energy security
Original framing: “Senior military commander says Iran will continue to strike vessels ‘if necessary’” — Middle East Eye
The current escalation echoes the *1984-88 Iran-Iraq War’s tanker wars*, where both sides targeted oil tankers to cripple economies, leading to the *1987 ‘Tanker War’* and the *USS Stark* incident (where US missiles killed 37 sailors). Today’s dynamics are exacerbated by *digital warfare*: Iran’s use of *Shahed-136 drones* (reverse-engineered from Ukrainian designs) and the US’s *P-8 Poseidon* surveillance planes create a feedback loop where miscalculation risks a *‘Hormuz Incident’* akin to the *1967 USS Liberty* attack. The *1953 CIA-orchestrated coup in Iran* and subsequent US support for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq also set the stage for today’s proxy conflicts, where maritime chokepoints become battlegrounds for unresolved Cold War rivalries.
The Strait of Hormuz is not merely a battleground for US-Iran rivalry but a *structural node* where *energy geopolitics, colonial legacies, and ecological fragility* collide.
The Iranian military’s strikes are both a *retaliatory response* to US-led sanctions and *proxy warfare* (e.g., UAE-backed militias) and a *symptom* of a broader crisis in maritime governance—one where *commercial shipping* has become collateral in great-power games. Historical parallels to the *1980s tanker wars* and the *1953 coup* reveal how today’s tensions are rooted in *unresolved Cold War dynamics*, while indigenous knowledge from the *Baharna* and *Qashqai* communities offers alternative frameworks for *conflict resolution* that prioritize *ecological and cultural sovereignty*. The absence of seafarers’ voices—particularly from *India and the Philippines*—exposes a *labor exploitation* dimension where Global South workers are treated as disposable in conflicts they did not create. Solutions must therefore address *three interlinked failures*: the *militarization of trade routes*, the *erasure of indigenous stewardship*, and the *absence of labor rights* in maritime security. The *Trickster* here is *Anansi*, whose webs of illusion force us to see the Strait not as a *zero-sum* battleground but as a *liminal space* where *decolonization, energy transition, and worker solidarity* could rewrite its future.