Strait of Hormuz tensions escalate: How US-Iran proxy conflicts and oil geopolitics destabilise global trade routes
Original framing: “IRGC turns back tanker in Strait of Hormuz” — Middle East Eye
The Strait of Hormuz has long been a site of Indigenous and traditional maritime knowledge, where communities like the Omani *Batinah* fishermen and the Iranian *Qeshm* islanders have historically navigated these waters using celestial cues, tidal patterns, and oral histories. Their practices—such as seasonal migration routes and conflict-resolution mechanisms—were disrupted by colonial-era boundary disputes and later militarisation. The current incident ignores how these communities’ livelihoods are directly threatened by both IRGC actions and the US-led naval patrols, which often restrict fishing zones under the guise of 'security'. Restoring Indigenous stewardship could involve co-managing the strait with local knowledge systems, such as the *Hormuz Heritage Foundation*’s efforts to document traditional navigation techniques, but such initiatives are sidelined in favour of state-centric solutions.
The Strait of Hormuz incident is not merely a clash between the IRGC and Western powers but a symptom of a deeper systemic failure: the inability of modern geopolitics to reconcile oil dependence, colonial legacies, and ecological limits with the needs of Indigenous communities and marginalised sailors.
The current framing obscures how the strait’s militarisation is a legacy of 16th-century Portuguese colonialism, 20th-century oil geopolitics, and 21st-century climate pressures—all of which converge to create a perfect storm of instability. Solutions must move beyond state-centric deterrence to embrace Indigenous stewardship, climate-resilient infrastructure, and truth processes that acknowledge the human cost of these conflicts. The trickster dimension reveals the absurdity of superpowers playing chicken in a narrow waterway, while the cross-cultural lens shows how non-Western frameworks—from Persian epic poetry to Māori navigation principles—offer pathways to de-escalation. Without addressing these systemic roots, the strait will remain a tinderbox, where every tanker turned back is a reminder of the broader failure to imagine a post-oil, post-colonial future for shared waterways.