Strait Jacket
THE AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE
October 1, 2026*
After Iran began attacking ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump announced the United States would play the role of “guardian” of commercial shipping in the war zone and guide ships “safely out of these restricted waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.”
While Tehran is trying to drag the world back to an era of state-sanctioned piracy, trade tolls and throttled economic activity, Washington is trying to keep alive an American policy dating to the beginning of the republic – and a principle of international relations with roots in the 1600s.
History
It was in 1609 that Dutch political theorist Hugo Grotius innovated the concept of mare liberum, or “freedom of the seas.” But the idea wasn’t universally or immediately accepted. It would be many years before a critical mass of nation-states agreed that the open seas should be, well, open. Even then, there was a need for nation-states to deploy the capabilities necessary to keep critical waterways, straits and chokepoints open – and to keep regional racketeers and extortionists at bay.
As a trading and coastal nation, America was destined to be a defender of freedom of the seas. Indeed, The Federalist Papers envisioned a day “when the fleets of America may engage attention.”
President Thomas Jefferson ushered in that day, when he ordered military action against the
piratical Barbary States of northern Africa. He did so partly to defend American honor, partly to ensure America’s access to Mediterranean markets and partly to defend the principle of freedom of the seas.
The subsequent 70 years saw U.S. forces wage a far-flung war against piracy – and for freedom of the seas – throughout the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, off the coasts of northern and western Africa, in Greece, Hong Kong and Sumatra.
By the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson would use his 14 Points to call for “absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas.” The Atlantic Charter, penned by President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill before U.S. entry into World War II, envisioned a postwar peace allowing “all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance.”
Stats
Roosevelt labeled freedom of the seas an “American policy” because he recognized that it serves American interests.
Maritime activity accounts for 40% of U.S. international trade value. Almost 71% of this U.S. trade in goods is moved via maritime transport. And 21.8 million American jobs rely on the maritime industry.
Given that international trade accounts for 25% of U.S. GDP, global trade statistics matter to America too; it accounts for more than 56% of the world’s combined GDP. Measured by volume, 80% of global trade moves on the open seas; measured by value, 70% does.
Worryingly, a large share of international trade flows through chokepoints like Hormuz. Before the 2026 Iran war, 21% of world oil trade transited Hormuz, including 20 million barrels of oil per day. Long-term closure of the strait would slice more than 4% off the global economy.
On the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, 12% of maritime trade and 4% of world oil trade flows through the Red Sea, which is bookended by two chokepoints: the Suez Canal in the north and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the south.
Around 15% of global trade travels through the Suez, including 4.9 million barrels of oil per day. Bab el-Mandeb – the southern entry to the Red Sea separating Yemen from Africa – moves 4.2 million barrels per day. More accurately, that’s how much oil moved through it before Iran’s Houthi proxies began lobbing missiles and drones at maritime traffic. The Iranian-armed group has attacked more than 130 ships transiting the Red Sea.
The Strait of Malacca, which separates Malaysia from the Indonesian archipelago, carries 22% of the world’s maritime trade, including 23 million barrels of oil per day – more than Hormuz.
To the northeast, one-third of the world’s maritime trade flows through the South China Sea, and 21% of global maritime trade moves through the Taiwan Strait.
In this hemisphere, 2.3 million barrels of oil per day transit the Panama Canal, as well as 40% of U.S. container traffic and 5% of the world’s shipborne trade by volume.
Costs
If we view the global economy as a superhighway, these are the bottlenecks. Perhaps more aptly, if we look at the global economy as a living organism, these are its vital arteries. Without them, the global economy will collapse, leaving only fractured regional economies.
The Strait of Malacca, for instance, is China’s jugular, delivering 80% of China’s oil imports. Similarly, 93% of Japan’s prewar oil imports transited outbound through Hormuz, and 70% of the Gulf states’ prewar food imports transited inbound. Asia-to-Europe container ships forced to avoid Bab el-Mandeb travel 3,000 extra miles. That adds costs to shipping – costs passed on to consumers.
Indeed, it is consumers – in America and around the world – who will pay the price for the Tehran toll. If it is allowed to stand, the cost of oil, gasoline, natural gas, fertilizer, helium and food would go up permanently.
Worse, it would serve as precedent for other waterways. “If the world accepts paying tolls for the Strait of Hormuz, then how do we handle the claim China has made that the entire South China Sea is Chinese territorial waters?” retired Vice Adm. John Miller asks. “If they control the South China Sea, they essentially control the global economy.”
There is no doubt that by constructing islands in the South China Sea – islands deemed unlawful by independent international bodies –Beijing wants to become the gatekeeper of this critical sea lane, and in doing so to hold sway over the prosperity of the free world.
Open
All of this explains why the Trump administration ordered U.S. forces to serve as guardians of Hormuz, why the Pentagon implemented Operation Roughrider (2025) and Operation Prosperity Guardian (2023-2025) in the Red Sea, why NATO launched Operation Ocean Shield (2009-2016) off the Horn of Africa, why the EU conducts Operation Atalanta in the Indian Ocean and Operation Apsides in the Red Sea, why U.S. and allied warships regularly steam through the Taiwan Strait, why U.S. and allied warplanes routinely overfly Beijing’s artificial islands in the South China Sea, and why the United States and a dozen partners stood up the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) in 2001. Today, five CMF task forces – enfolding 47 navies – defend freedom of the seas.
These missions are the heirs of Operation Earnest Will and Operation Praying Mantis (which took place in the Persian Gulf in the late 1980s), Operation Attain Document and Operation Prairie Fire (executed in the Mediterranean in the early 1980s), the Anglo-American-Canadian Escort Groups and Mid-Ocean Escort Force of World War II, the Atlantic Convoy System of World War I, America’s counter-privateer operations in the Caribbean in the late 1700s, and countless other campaigns that have defended freedom of the seas.
The common denominator of those campaigns and operations is naval capability. In the 1980s, the Navy boasted 594 warships. During World War II, it surged to a staggering 6,768 warships. The British fleet numbered 2,300, and Canada contributed another 450. During World War I, the Navy totaled 774 ships; the British fleet had 807.
While today’s Navy is more ambidextrous than its forerunners, freedom of the seas depends on having a presence near the chokepoints and arteries worldwide. As U.S. Pacific Command’s commander Adm. Samuel Paparo observes, “combat-credible forward presence” helps “deter malign activities.”
Today’s Navy lacks the assets to be present in all the places it’s needed. As of this writing, the Navy deploys just 293 ships. Navy leaders say they need more than 500 warships to carry out their multifaceted, multi-theater mission.
Capability
Freedom of seas, like the flow of highway traffic, is only possible if there are agreed-upon rules, if there’s someone willing to enforce those rules and, most important of all, if that someone has the capability of enforcing the rules.
Keeping vital waterways free and open doesn’t happen by accident or by the invisible hand of the market – and certainly not because those who control Iran, Yemen and China agree with Hugo Grotius. These waterways will remain open only if the navies of the free world keep them open.
*This essay was the cover story in the October 2026 issue of The American Legion Magazine.