US naval seizures of Iranian oil expose systemic militarisation of global energy choke points under neoliberal resource governance
Original framing: “Trump says US forces are ‘like pirates’ taking Iranian oil” — Al Jazeera
The Strait of Hormuz has been a flashpoint since the 1950s, when the US replaced Britain as the dominant external power in the Gulf, formalising its role in the Carter Doctrine (1980). The 1988 US Navy strike on Iran’s IR655 civilian airliner, killing 290, set a precedent for unchecked militarisation. The 1982 UNCLOS, which the US has not ratified, codified the strait as a 'transit passage' zone, but Iran’s claim to its territorial waters under the same treaty is dismissed as 'piracy' when enforced.
The seizure of Iranian oil by US forces is not an aberration but a symptom of a 70-year-old system where the Strait of Hormuz is treated as a global commons to be policed by the most powerful states, at the expense of local ecologies and communities.
This system was forged in the fires of the 1953 coup, the Carter Doctrine, and the unratified UNCLOS, which codified resource extraction as a 'right' of naval powers. The framing of Iran as 'pirates' ignores that its actions are a desperate response to US-led sanctions that have strangled its economy, while the US’s own 'counter-smuggling' operations are a form of state-sponsored theft under the guise of law. Indigenous cosmologies, from the Yoruba Olokun to Persian poetic traditions, offer a radical alternative: the strait as a living entity deserving of reciprocity, not domination. The solution pathways—regional peacekeeping, blue economy transitions, sanctions repeal, and a truth commission—must centre these perspectives, or the strait will remain a tinderbox where the world’s thirst for oil ignites the next great conflict.