Maritime Chokepoints: Lessons from the Black Sea

- The conflict in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz closure left the world stunned. Global financial markets were appended and the fracturing world order experienced the largest energy supply shock to date, all because of the maritime choke point. The world realized that these narrow strategic waterways upon which international commerce depends remain the global economy's Achilles heel. What then can we do to keep maritime choke points like Hormuz open and safe? Even during wartime, one answer could be found in another critical waterway, the Turkish straits near the entrance of the Black Sea. Their relative absence from discussions of the Russia-Ukrainian conflict is a sheer diplomatic triumph. Even amid this ongoing conflict, the Straits have continued to allow commercial shipping for Black Sea grain exports. This stability rests on a little known but longstanding achievement of international diplomacy. The 1936 Montreux Convention, which granted Turkey the sovereign authority to restrict warship passage through the Turkish straits during wartime. By limiting military escalation in the Turke Point early in the war in Ukraine, Turkey helped preserve space for commercial shipping, including Black Sea grain exports, even as the broader war continued to disrupt maritime trade. As the crisis at Hormeus unfolded, the Kremlin could have noted how easily the global economy can be paralyzed through a single maritime choke point. Just as the strait of Hormeus is indispensable to global oil and natural gas supplies, the Turkish traits are essential to global grain and fertilizer flows, handling nearly one third of the world's annual exports and acting as a nexus for the increasingly vital middle corridor trade route. Success in the Turkish straits came only with vigilance. Western allies must still remain on guard against a potentially catastrophic weaponization of the Turkish traits. For Moscow, dominance in the Black Sea is non-negotiable, rooted in Russia's imperial identity and codified in its maritime doctrine. Countering Russia's adventurism will depend heavily on the Black Sea's very gatekeeper, Turkey. The Turkey-Russia transactional relationship shaped by energy, grain, and security interests rather than shared values, could either help check Russian expansionism or fracture under post-war pressure. And if it fractures, even a few floating naval mines could choke off the Turkish straits, paralyze Ukrainian grain exports, and plunge the world into a major food supply shock. Maritime choke points stay open not by chance, but through enforceable rules, capable regional partners, and sustained allied vigilance. From Hormuz to the Turkish straits, the stability of the global economy depends on whether strategic choke points are safeguarded before the next crisis begins.