From the Strait of Hormuz to the North Sea, a global maritime conflict is redefining international security. The stakes are not just the price of oil, but the very survival of the norms governing global trade for centuries.
The collapse of the rule-based order is not limited to land. Global security is being questioned as the principles of maritime cooperation are eroded by unilateral actions and regional conflicts, writes Simon Tisdall in The Guardian.
From Ormuz to a global navigation crisis
The United States’ military campaign to protect commercial maritime transport from Iranian attacks, by imposing direct control in the Strait of Hormuz, is not an original idea of the Donald Trump administration. Nearly 200 years ago, from 1825-1827, a powerful American naval squadron, led by Commodore John Rodgers, was sent to the Mediterranean Sea to defend American ships from the attacks of corsairs and Greek pirates.
Despite the fiery speeches about freedom of the young American republic of that time, the US squadron did not support Greece’s fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire – what we would today call a fight for “regime change”. Its sole purpose, a strictly self-interested one, was the defense of trade, markets, and American business interests. After abandoning calls for a popular revolution in Tehran, this is exactly the kind of calculation that Trump’s reckless war with Iran was reduced to.
Although the United States has not ratified the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which guarantees the legal right to free passage without the interference of coastal states, the country has historically supported the principle of freedom of navigation, or mare liberum (“the free sea”), developed by the 17th-century Dutch jurist, Hugo Grotius. Rejecting Iran’s claims, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in June that “no country is allowed to levy taxes or tariffs on an international waterway.”
However, in the meantime, Trump has suggested that the United States itself could do exactly this and could impose transit taxes. Although he later backtracked, the “memorandum of understanding” signed last month with Iran recognizes its right, along with Oman, to monetize transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the resumption of American attacks and Trump’s threats, this memorandum remains, for now, the only possible foundation for a future peace agreement.
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