Or the Brutal Focus of Geography, Interests, and the Sacrificed

Once again, in Europe—and particularly in France—we tend to view events through far too narrow a lens. What is happening today can only be understood through a global perspective rather than a purely local one. Europeans, and certainly the residents of the Paris region, do not vote in the United States, in Moscow, or in Beijing.

What appears chaotic, irrational, and incomprehensible in American foreign policy may not actually be so. Perhaps it is simply the fog surrounding a vast international game of high-stakes poker whose rules we do not yet fully understand.

For decades, the Strait of Hormuz has symbolized global energy vulnerability. A strategic passage linking the Gulf to international markets, it has become far more than a maritime route: it is a tool of power, pressure, and at times geopolitical coercion. One is entitled to question the choices of past and present leaders in the face of a reality that has never changed. Playing cards is not enough, whether the game is played with trumps or without them.

Yet observing Hormuz without relating it to the Strait of Malacca is now equivalent to seeing only half the picture. As Talleyrand famously remarked in another context, “It is worse than a mistake; it is a blunder.”

For the two straits form, in reality, a single strategic architecture:

Hormuz primarily controls energy flows, while Malacca controls Asian industrial and commercial flows.

Between them unfolds a much broader contest:

the gradual shift of the world’s center of gravity toward Asia, the return of maritime power politics, and perhaps the quiet return of Europe to its closest natural energy supplier: Russia.

Europe Discovers, Amid Turmoil, That Geography Never Disappears

Since 2022, the European Union has sought to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. Yet this proclaimed independence has proved highly relative.

Russian gas has been replaced........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)