March 15, 2026
Legal and Operational Issues in the Strait of Hormuz: Transit Passage Under Fire
This article was originally published in Just Security.
The Strait of Hormuz — a narrow chokepoint through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil transits — is now an active conflict zone. Iranian forces have struck multiple neutral merchant vessels and may be laying naval mines in the Strait, threatening one of the most important shipping routes in the global economy.
The Strait of Hormuz has long been recognized as one of the world’s most strategically vital and legally complex maritime passages.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has told the world that “we don’t need to worry about it.” I disagree—the security situation in the Strait is a source of immense worry, is acutely dangerous, and there is no easy fix. What’s more, as I discuss below, the U.S. Navy’s very recent decommissioning of an entire class of minesweepers, without an effective ready replacement, makes an already precarious situation worse.
Read the full article in Just Security.
More from CNAS
-
The Constitution’s Forgotten Term Limit on Military Power
Commentary
They designed the Two-Year Clause not as a technical appropriations rule but as a structural guarantee: that the army of the United States would remain, as one Federalist put ...
By Mark Nevitt & Matthew. B. Lawrence
-
Mined and Blockaded: Iran’s Unlawful Mining and the U.S. Port Blockade
Commentary
As I discuss below, whether the United States carries out the blockade in a legal manner will affect, among other things, allied States’ willingness to participate and the ove...
By Mark Nevitt
-
Commentary
Middle East Security / National Security Law
Continuing Crisis in Strait of Hormuz: Why Iran’s Hold is Illegal and U.S. Military Force Alone FailsIran has drawn explicit lessons from this disruption and is now seeking to institutionalize its control....
By Mark Nevitt
-
Podcast
Middle East Security / National Security Law
Is the U.S. Fighting a War Without Rules?Military rules of engagement exist to specify 'who' and 'what' can be attacked. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. is fighting Iran without "stupid" rules of eng...
By Mark Nevitt
