The Collapse of the World's Strategic Straits - Part 2 || Peter Zeihan

The collapse of international norms regarding naturally occurring waterways threatens to rewire global commerce through the imposition of sovereign tolls and "protection money" regimes. Iran’s potential move to regulate the Strait of Hormuz serves as a catalyst for a domino effect, likely prompting the Houthis, Somali pirates, and even France via Djibouti to extract value from the Bab el-Mandeb. While the Strait of Malacca remains stable due to regional trade dependencies, Turkey is poised to immediately monetize the Bosporus and Dardanelles, and a unified Scandinavia could restrict Russian exports through the Danish Straits. This shift transforms global energy and commodity flows into regionalized assets, granting immense leverage to states controlling these chokepoints while forcing distant nations to seek increasingly scarce alternative sources. Russia, in particular, faces severe economic isolation as its primary western export routes fall under the discretionary control of NATO-aligned powers.