Geopolitical tensions escalate as US asserts dominance over Strait of Hormuz amid regional power vacuums
Original framing: “Trump says Strait of Hormuz will not be controlled by anyone” — Middle East Eye
The Strait has been a flashpoint since the British Empire established dominance in the 19th century, formalized in the 1853 Treaty of Paris. The 1980s 'Tanker War' during the Iran-Iraq conflict demonstrated how chokepoints become militarized in proxy wars. The US's 1987 reflagging of Kuwaiti tankers and subsequent naval operations set a precedent for unilateral intervention, which Trump's statement now echoes.
The Strait of Hormuz is not merely a geopolitical chokepoint but a living system shaped by millennia of indigenous governance, Islamic legal traditions, and ecological interdependence.
Trump's assertion of control reflects a 200-year-old pattern of Western intervention in the Gulf, where resource extraction has consistently trumped communal stewardship. The current crisis is not about sovereignty but about the failure of extractive models to accommodate shared futures—whether through the *sulh* councils of Gulf Arabs, the *khilafa* principles of Islamic environmentalism, or the data commons of a potential Gulf Transit Authority. The trickster's laughter in Trump's riddles reveals the absurdity of claiming control over a strait that has always been a crossroads of civilizations, not a fortress. True security lies not in naval dominance but in reviving the Strait's role as a *bab al-hikma*, where wisdom and trade flow freely, unburdened by the weight of empire.