Strategic Maritime Chokepoints: Perspectives from the Global Shipping and Port Sectors
Strategic chokepoints are geographic constraints shaping sea routes and the global shipping industry and, therefore, create numerous business opportunities for those industries that support global shipping, including port operations, ship repair, bunkerin
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Strategic Maritime Chokepoints: Perspectives from the Global Shipping and Port Sectors Rockford Weitz
Global shipping companies do not view maritime chokepoints as strategically important but rather simply as a geographic reality for their businesses. In contrast, global port operators, ship charterers, bunkerers, ship repairers, and other maritime support service companies view having a physical presence at maritime chokepoints as a competitive advantage because such waterways create a geographic concentration of global shipping routes. This chapter touches upon the theme of ocean as avenue and examines why strategic chokepoints are important to certain maritime industries but not others. Over 90 percent of international trade is carried by sea, but the global shipping industry and maritime support services receive relatively little attention in scholarly journals and books, including from academics focused on maritime security. Martin Stopford has examined global shipping from a maritime economics perspective,1 and Marc Levinson has written about how containerization reshaped the global economy.2 National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies has published enlightening articles on strategic chokepoints, such as those by John Noer3 and Donna Nincic,4 but only Daniel Coulter’s piece on the rise of hub ports5 R. Weitz (*) The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA © The Author(s) 2018 G. F. Gresh (ed.), Eurasia’s Maritime Rise and Global Security, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71806-4_2
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begins to provide the maritime industry perspectives offered by this chapter. This chapter builds upon my long-standing academic interest in how transnational actors influence global maritime affairs, such as how Lloyd’s of London, the world’s largest insurance market, has had an impact on maritime security cooperation in the Malacca Straits.6 Similar to other transnational actors such as marine insurers and credit rating agencies, shipping companies, global port operators, and other maritime support services sometimes influence international affairs, often unintentionally, by pursuing their business interests. Charting the course for this intellectual voyage, this chapter starts with overviews of strategic maritime chokepoints, the commercial shipping industry, and global port operators and other maritime support services. The chapter then examines three case studies of Eurasian strategic chokepoints— (i) the Malacca Straits, (ii) the Suez Canal, and (iii) the Strait of Gibraltar— by providing a brief historical summary of how each waterway has evolved over time, and then concludes by exploring possible reasons why strategic chokepoints are important to certain maritime industries but not others.
Strategic Maritime Chokepoints Although the world ocean covers over 70 percent of the globe, commercial shipping routes are remarkably concentrated. Strategic chokepoints are narrow waterways where sea routes converge due to geography, including straits, c
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