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.
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