The United States is working to restore freedom of navigation in the Middle East as talks continue in Pakistan with Iran. If the US can pull this off, then this will be a game-changer after a month and a half during which the Strait of Hormuz was closed.
This is important for the world economy and for the US image in the region. The US has been a champion of freedom of navigation for more than a century. It was a key aspect of the US decision to enter World War One and a key US demand in the war's wake. The US role in enabling ships to navigate the seas is a legacy of the British Empire's once-dominant role in the world economy and in safeguarding the seas.
This matters. US history and the rise of the US as a global power are tied to America’s naval power. After the Second World War and especially after the fall of the Soviet Union, the US became a global superpower and global naval power.
This has been challenged in recent years by the rise of China and also groups like the Houthis and now Iran. If the US can’t open the Strait of Hormuz, it will appear globally weak.
China and others are watching. If the world is now more multipolar, then this is evidence that the US is weakening on the global stage. US anger at NATO allies, for instance, is a feature of the challenge to the world order that has emerged in recent decades.
US begins clearing mines from Strait of Hormuz
US Central Command announced on Saturday that “Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began setting conditions for clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, April 11, as two US Navy guided-missile destroyers conducted operations."
"USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy transited the Strait of Hormuz and operated in the Arabian Gulf as part of a broader mission to ensure the strait is fully clear of sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps," CENTCOM detailed in a post on X/Twitter.
"Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage, and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, said of the operation.
Finally, it added, “the Strait of Hormuz is an international sea passage and an essential trade corridor that supports regional and global economic prosperity. Additional US forces, including underwater drones, will join the clearance effort in the coming days.”
The influence of sea power on history was the subject of an important book by Alfred Thayer Mahan, a kind of prophet of US sea power. During the Cold War, one argument LBJ apparently made about the Space Race was that control of space was akin to how the British once ruled the seas, and the Romans built roads.
If the US can’t open the proverbial road through Hormuz, then the US global role as an inheritor of the British Empire and Rome, as a Western power, may be challenged.