Geopolitical Tensions Threaten Global Oil Chokepoint: Systemic Risks of U.S.-Iran Proxy Conflicts in Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz crisis is not merely a geopolitical standoff but a microcosm of how colonial-era energy infrastructures and U.S.

military dominance in the Persian Gulf perpetuate cycles of retaliation and proxy warfare. The framing of this conflict as a bilateral dispute between Iran and Israel obscures the deeper structural forces: decades of U.S. sanctions on Iran, the entrenchment of Gulf monarchies as U.S. clients, and the weaponization of global oil flows to maintain hegemony. Historically, the Strait has been a site of both shared heritage and imperial contestation, from the British Empire’s control to the 1980s Tanker War, yet contemporary analyses ignore these precedents in favor of short-term security narratives. The marginalized voices—fishermen, civilians, and indigenous communities—are the first casualties of this militarization, while the petrostates and military-industrial complexes profit from the status quo. A systemic solution requires dismantling the energy-security nexus that ties Gulf stability to oil dependence, replacing it with regional governance that centers ecological sustainability and human security over state power.