Duncan Wood
Commercial vessels are pictured offshore in Dubai on March 11, 2026. New attacks hit three commercial ships in the Gulf on March 11, with one of the vessels in flames as Iran pressed its campaign against its oil-exporting neighbours, threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and plunging the global energy economy into crisis. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images).
As Middle East tensions rise, the Strait of Hormuz has again become a focal point for policymakers and markets. Roughly one-fifth of globally traded oil passes through that narrow waterway. Any disruption reverberates immediately through global energy prices and, ultimately, the wallets of American consumers.
But focusing solely on Hormuz risks missing the bigger picture. The real story of the global economy in 2026 is not a single chokepoint. It is the proliferation of chokepoints: across geography, infrastructure, industry and even the digital world. These bottlenecks form the hidden architecture of the global economy. And increasingly, they are becoming the terrain on which economic competition and geopolitical rivalry are fought.
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