Global Maritime Chokepoints

Global Maritime Chokepoints: Oceans, Trade and the Geopolitics of Power in the Twenty-First Century, written under supervision of the geopolitical expert Artur Victoria for the Ocean Geopolitics Centre, examines the narrow maritime passages upon which an extraordinary proportion of global trade, energy security and strategic mobility depends.Moving across the world’s principal maritime gateways - from Gibraltar and the Turkish Straits to Suez, Bab El-Mandeb, Hormuz, Malacca and Panama-the book demonstrates how geography continues to shape international power despite the technological sophistication of the global economy. Particular attention is given to the Bering Strait as an emerging geopolitical chokepoint, where Arctic transformation may increasingly bring American, Russian and Chinese strategic interests into proximity.Rather than treating chokepoints simply as geographical features, Artur Victoria analyses them as spaces where commerce, naval power, sovereignty, infrastructure, security and political risk converge. Disruption in one narrow passage can generate consequences across distant markets and continents.The book ultimately reveals a central paradox of contemporary globalisation: while the world economy has become increasingly interconnected and geographically extensive, its maritime foundations remain concentrated in a remarkably small number of vulnerable passages. Understanding these gateways is therefore essential to understanding the geopolitics of twenty-first-century power.