In retrospect, the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing increasingly appears to be a lost opportunity for the U.S. This is not because there were few concrete achievements or deliverables from this summit. In history, many previous summits that also produced few material agreements ultimately triggered mutually beneficial transformations in great power relations.
The greatest risk facing shippers, importers, and exporters is not the blockade of the Hormuz Strait but rather its normalization under conditions of weak deterrence and asymmetric dependence. The Hormuz crisis is one episode of a broader pattern of maritime coercion, the targeting of critical infrastructure, and economic and trade coercion.
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