The fighting in the Middle East has the world on tenterhooks, but the economic shocks hitting Asia are so alarming that usually guarded regional leaders are speaking out. From its most resilient countries to the most vulnerable, the region is uniquely dependent on energy flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan put it bluntly when he described the US as “a revisionist power” that some would even call a “disruptor.” He was speaking about the Iran war and America’s role in Asia, but also something larger: The erosion of the Washington-led postwar order that “underpinned a remarkable period of peace and prosperity” — a foundation that, as he put it last week, is now gone.

© Bloomberg