The World’s Four Chokepoints
History tells us that large systems of social, economic, and political interconnection are especially vulnerable to crisis and the perils of human conflict. In our world, each superpower finds itself in the paradoxical position where it desires to secure its interests yet must simultaneously act with a sense of immense caution lest the global systems upon which they depend collapse. Between the movement of raw goods for industry and production, food for consumption and population stability, and military forces to maintain a multi-continental security balance, the position of maritime travel remains elevated to a point beyond both land and air travel. The critical role played by maritime transfer does not necessarily extend to the whole breadth of the world's wide oceans, so much as it culminates in critical chokepoints upon which the world order hangs. Often situated tightly between landmasses, various zones of global sea passage both significantly reduce distance and time between states and allow access to otherwise isolated regions. The immense global tensions associated with our time have not left these most important hotspots in the now dangerously interconnected globe unaffected. Indeed, half of these junctures are presently involved in conflicts of major significance.
The Suez Canal
Since its construction by French interests in the 19th century, the Suez Canal has served to connect the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean, circumventing the lengthy and often dangerous journey around the southern tip of Africa. Vital to the importation of goods to both Europe and Asia, the sustenance of the Egyptian economy, and with innumerable other functions, the security of this man-made narrow waterway has become increasingly concerning. Currently stifled by rocket attacks launched by Houthi militants from Yemen, the nearby Bab-el-Mandeb is one of several points along the Suez Canal vulnerable to instability in the Horn of Africa and Middle East. A tremendous fraction of global trade flows through the Canal, and while no world power desires to interfere with its unrestricted movement of cargo, regional states like Iran may nonetheless draw on instability surrounding this area to further pressure international order.
The Panama Canal
Also built in the 19th century by state-backed infrastructure money, the second manmade chokepoint connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, sparing the perilous trip around Tierra del Fuego in South America. As a centre point in the American sphere of influence, the canal is of similar importance to global trade, but is not a source of similar political anxiety. Situated in Panama, a stable democracy, the canal is not in any immediate danger or subject to pressing military-political pressure. Of special geopolitical significance for the tripartite AUKUS maritime powers coalition, this doorway between the Pacific and Atlantic would undoubtedly play a massive role in the transfer of goods and supplies in the event of a greater global confrontation. Although it is not a captivating headline in the current crises that afflict the globe, attention must be paid to the long-term strategic value of the Panama Canal, and it should feel a greater appreciation for its role in international trade.
The Bosporus
If the dangers posed to the Suez proceed from guerrilla and rebel attacks aided by the spectre of periphery powers, the threats to this passage through which enormous amounts of grain and oil move from the Black Sea to the world are clear and direct. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has threatened the security of agricultural exports from the besieged state, while an increasingly unreliable Turkish government retains control over the sea-based flow of these goods, much to the chagrin of sceptical states. If the supply of foodstuffs from the Black Sea is seriously compromised, there will be disastrous consequences for supply chains and global nutritional security. It is imperative therefore that diplomacy and statesmanship be used to their greatest extent to provide for the peace and order of this strait of such vital importance.
The Malacca Strait
Relied upon by European powers to access East Asia in the Age of Imperialism, the Singapore adjacent Malacca trade route is perhaps the least appreciated, yet most significant maritime chokepoint in modern geopolitics. As the primary gateway for the transfer of some raw goods between China and the West, the strait is also responsible for fuelling the Singapore economy and commercially binding Asia. Strategists and economists have long been aware that an interruption of trade through the Malacca Strait would upset global trade while also straining ties, both economic and political, between the West and the East. With the global economy reliant on the Strait for the transfer of goods, America and other Western states retain a justification to provide for global security based on liberal ideas of international which emphasize freedom of navigation. Conversely, China will continue to develop its belt-and-road initiative to counteract this balance in the distribution of global power. As the century of global interconnection, technological uncertainty, and emerging multipolarity drags on, the Malacca remains of the utmost importance – a passage upon which a great part of the world’s weight rests.
Image courtesy of The American Journal of Transportation, © 2021. Some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
