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Oil and gas producing countries are expected to increasingly invest in land pipelines to avoid dependence on vulnerable sea routes...
The blockade of a strategic strait is creating a new pattern of geopolitical pressure that could extend from Taiwan to the Red Sea.
The Strait of Hormuz continues to be the epicenter of global tensions, showing that control of strategic waterways has become a weapon with a direct impact on the world economy. In a period when the ceasefire was supposed to reduce tensions, the reality has been quite different: Iran has kept the passage through one of the most important energy arteries of the planet restricted, while the US has responded with a naval blockade.
The consequences are no longer just regional. Rising energy costs, shocks in international markets and uncertainty in trade chains are being felt in the economies of many countries. The fact that a fifth of global oil and liquefied gas passes through Hormuz makes any destabilization there a crisis with a domino effect.
But the biggest concern is not just related to the Middle East. Analysts warn that the precedents set in Hormuz could be used in other hot spots around the globe. In this context, attention is shifting to the Taiwan Strait, where tensions between China and the West remain high.
According to analysis by military expert Michael Clarke, Beijing could use the arguments and practices established during the Hormuz crisis to justify similar restrictions in the waters around Taiwan. Such a development would not only pose a security crisis in Asia, but also a serious blow to global trade, given the region's strategic importance for the technology industry and international shipping.
Another sensitive point remains the Strait of Malacca, a vital corridor connecting the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and through which most Asian trade passes. Although political tensions there have not reached the level of Hormuz, any clash between regional states, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, could turn this waterway into another hotbed of insecurity.
At the same time, the risk is also increasing in the southern Red Sea. The ongoing attacks and threats by the Houthis in Yemen have shown that the Bab el-Mandeb Strait can also be used as an instrument of pressure on international shipping. Although on a more limited scale than Hormuz, the impact on trade and maritime movement remains considerable.
Unlike these natural straits, the Suez and Panama Canals remain under the sovereign control of the countries where they are located, making them less exposed to the logic of international blockades. However, recent developments have revived the debate over the security of all global trade corridors.
In the long term, the crisis in Hormuz could precipitate a major energy transformation in the Middle East. Oil and gas-producing countries are expected to invest more and more in overland pipelines to avoid dependence on vulnerable sea routes. If that happens, the world could enter a new era in which energy infrastructure is built not just on economic logic, but on the fear of blockades and geopolitical conflict.
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