Is it worth it to the United States to enforce freedom of navigation on the seas?

That question was a subplot in the Trump administration’s instantly famous leaked Signal chat over an operation to hit Houthi targets in Yemen. 

Vice President JD Vance expressed skepticism, pointing out that more European than US trade passes through the Suez Canal.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Michael Waltz, on the other hand, were strongly in favor. Hegseth, correctly, called freedom of navigation “a core national interest.”

Open sea lanes are necessary to US commercial shipping and trade (80% of all global trade is carried by ocean), as well as to lines of communication with our allies and US bases overseas.

As a strategy document from US Joint Forces Command put it a few years ago, “The crucial enabler for America’s ability to project its military power for the past six decades has been its almost complete control over the global commons.” 

The fact is, President........

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