Donald Trump’s maritime strategy is often caricatured as nostalgia. It is better read as a calculated extension of America First into the oceans. The hierarchy is explicit: China’s Malacca dilemma is the main course in the new great game; the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is the opening move that exposes it.
Hormuz shuts, old Iranian tankers are now shuttled to Kharg Island to buy time as storage tanks reach capacity and markets are reminded how a few miles of water can reorder prices and politics. Yet Iran is not the prize. The strategic focus is China’s dependence on a long, fragile route that runs from Hormuz across the Indian Ocean and through the Strait of Malacca into Chinese ports, the Malacca dilemma as Beijing’s economic jugular.
Winston Churchill understood that sea lanes and insurance markets are two sides of the same coin. In the easy years of Pax Americana, the City of London prospered by assuming that US sea power was a permanent, neutral backdrop, free to price maritime risk while the US Navy guaranteed open arteries. In the emerging order, that role shrinks: the Square Mile shifts from rule‑maker to price‑taker on decisions made in Washington.
Trump’s Maritime Action Plan of rebuilding shipyards and the merchant marine, ordering new capital ships and expanding the fleet, is not a spasm but a coherent strategy to ensure that, in any prolonged crisis, Washington rather than Beijing ultimately controls the Hormuz–Malacca valve.
For Europe and the UK, the uncomfortable implication is that green industrial strategies and political distance from Washington rest on an assumption that may no longer hold: that America will underwrite global sea lanes as a free good, whatever the new great game demands.
If the Dardanelles hadn't ruined his reputation Churchill would be remembered as a formidable First Lord of the Admiralty who knew only too well the world domination of sea power.
Excellent point - considering recent deals made between the US and Indonesia/Malaysia regarding this Strait.
Amazing how important sea shipping remains in 2026. Just as relevant as 1626, 1726, 1826, 1926....
I'm getting the popcorn ready for when we acquire Greenland and new shipping lanes are opened up through the Arctic etc, bypassing legacy routes and upending centuries of geopolitics....
All your straits are belong to us
I love it when a Plan comes together -Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith
Food for thought.
Trump’s new great game at sea.
Donald Trump’s maritime strategy is often caricatured as nostalgia. It is better read as a calculated extension of America First into the oceans. The hierarchy is explicit: China’s Malacca dilemma is the main course in the new great game; the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is the opening move that exposes it.
Hormuz shuts, old Iranian tankers are now shuttled to Kharg Island to buy time as storage tanks reach capacity and markets are reminded how a few miles of water can reorder prices and politics. Yet Iran is not the prize. The strategic focus is China’s dependence on a long, fragile route that runs from Hormuz across the Indian Ocean and through the Strait of Malacca into Chinese ports, the Malacca dilemma as Beijing’s economic jugular.
Winston Churchill understood that sea lanes and insurance markets are two sides of the same coin. In the easy years of Pax Americana, the City of London prospered by assuming that US sea power was a permanent, neutral backdrop, free to price maritime risk while the US Navy guaranteed open arteries. In the emerging order, that role shrinks: the Square Mile shifts from rule‑maker to price‑taker on decisions made in Washington.
Trump’s Maritime Action Plan of rebuilding shipyards and the merchant marine, ordering new capital ships and expanding the fleet, is not a spasm but a coherent strategy to ensure that, in any prolonged crisis, Washington rather than Beijing ultimately controls the Hormuz–Malacca valve.
For Europe and the UK, the uncomfortable implication is that green industrial strategies and political distance from Washington rest on an assumption that may no longer hold: that America will underwrite global sea lanes as a free good, whatever the new great game demands.
Informative essay with a map! The 40,000 foot view.
If the Dardanelles hadn't ruined his reputation Churchill would be remembered as a formidable First Lord of the Admiralty who knew only too well the world domination of sea power.
Excellent point - considering recent deals made between the US and Indonesia/Malaysia regarding this Strait.
Amazing how important sea shipping remains in 2026. Just as relevant as 1626, 1726, 1826, 1926....
I'm getting the popcorn ready for when we acquire Greenland and new shipping lanes are opened up through the Arctic etc, bypassing legacy routes and upending centuries of geopolitics....
All your straits are belong to us
u/#sworddance
Hmmmm must be some kind of kick back $$$$ to USA politicians that kept the stolen citizens tax dollars footing the bills for guaranteeing passage