Wars Have Entered the Chokehold Era

The world is watching to see whether the Iran war ends soon with mutual de-escalation, or drags on with further damage to Iran, the Persian Gulf and a global economy that depends on that region’s oil.

But no matter how the conflict ends, it’s part of a bigger story about the collision between a hyper-globalized economy and a hyper-competitive geopolitics. We’ve entered the chokehold era, as actors large and small weaponize their control of critical nodes in complex networks. In doing so, they’re exploiting and endangering globalization all at once.