As of April 2026, the Strait of Hormuz has experienced multiple closures and reopenings amid escalating conflict between Iran, the United States, and Israel, illustrating a deliberate pattern of leveraging maritime chokepoints for strategic advantage. Iran's military recently reimposed 'strict control' over the waterway, declaring it closed again in response to continued US blockades, following an earlier shutdown in March that halted nearly all commercial tanker traffic. Shipping giants including Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd suspended operations, with reports of attacks on vessels attempting transit. This builds directly on prior disruptions in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait linked to Houthi actions in the Red Sea from 2023-2025, creating what analysts describe as a 'dual-chokepoint problem' that cascades through global supply chains. UNCTAD highlights how these events, which carry around a quarter of global seaborne oil and significant LNG, transmit shocks to commodity markets, causing plastic shortages in Asia, record insurance premiums, and massive rerouting around Africa that adds weeks to transit times and billions in costs. A Nature study on systemic impacts of chokepoint disruptions notes parallels with Panama Canal droughts and Red Sea attacks, driving up freight rates worldwide regardless of direct involvement and exposing vulnerabilities in just-in-time global trade. Breaking Defense and other analyses warn that sustained Hormuz instability will reshape defense postures at other passages like Malacca and Suez, while forcing firms to reconsider concentrated reliance on Asian manufacturing and Middle East energy routes. Far from episodic crises, this pattern signals accelerating deglobalization: higher baseline volatility in energy prices, incentives for reshoring critical industries, and a shift from efficiency-maximizing globalization toward resilient, regionalized networks. Congressional Research Service reporting underscores the threat to free navigation, with attacks already claiming lives and stranding millions of barrels of oil. These developments suggest state actors are internalizing the asymmetric power of chokepoints, a trend likely to persist and intensify pressures toward fragmentation in the global economy.