, Columnist
Suez Crisis Will Become Unstuck. The Real Security Crisis Will Remain.
Countries and companies should wake up to new political risks to shipping and supply chains.
Watch out for new dangers to global shipping.
Photographer: U.S. Navy/Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Todd Frantom/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The Suez Canal Crisis of 2021 is upon us. The canal is closed, and maritime traffic jams extend into the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The reopening date is uncertain, supply chains are stressing, and executives are nervous.
“Crisis” may strike some as the wrong word. After all, there are no Cold War tensions as there were during the 1956 Suez Crisis, which closed the canal for six months, as the USSR simultaneously crushed the Hungarian Revolution. Nor are there Arab-Israeli military hostilities as during 1967’s Six-Day War, which (along with the 1973 Yom Kippur War) closed the Suez Canal for eight years.