- International Affairs
- Europe
- History
- Economics
- Revitalizing History
Maritime chokepoints are among the global economy’s greatest strategic vulnerabilities, capable of disrupting vital flows of energy, food, and trade. The Turkish Straits demonstrate how the 1936 Montreux Convention and Turkey’s wartime authority over warship passage helped limit military escalation while preserving space for Black Sea grain exports. Yet this stability remains vulnerable to Russian ambitions, shifting Turkish-Russo relations, and threats such as naval mines. Protecting strategic waterways requires clear and enforceable rules, capable regional partners, and sustained allied vigilance before a crisis begins.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ziyi (Emily) Wang is a research and teaching fellow at the Hoover Institution. As a diplomatic historian of post-Napoleonic Europe, Wang examines the collapse of the Concert of Europe world order (1815–1914) through archival research in Britain, France, and Austria. At Hoover, Wang applies her research on 19th-century European diplomacy to elucidate contemporary geopolitical challenges, including the management of maritime chokepoints, European collective security, and transactional great-power alliances. Her works on the security of the Black Sea and the Turkish Straits regime have been published by Hoover Institution Press and Engelsberg Ideas.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Policy in Brief by the Hoover History Lab analyzes contemporary global policy challenges, offering insights and providing possible solutions through a historical lens.
