With the Iran-US-Israel conflict choking the jugular vein of the global energy sea route, the Strait of Hormuz, a 21-mile-wide mouth of the Persian Gulf, is at the centre stage of world affairs. Historically, the Strait connected Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley, and even prior to the discovery of black gold (crude oil) reserves, it was the primary trade route for copper, diorite and precious stones. The rise in mercantile activity led to the island city of Hormuz, from which it derives its name, to be transformed into a commercial hub. Criticality of this maritime area has remained a necessary constant over the years, and it has seen transformation towards monopolisation from Portuguese to British to present-day Iran and the US.
Blockades have historically proven to be an effective tool of economic warfare. The first known instance of imposing a blockade was during the Peloponnesian War (430-404 BCE), which led to Sparta’s use of its formidable navy to cut off grain supplies to Athens in Black Sea. Modern-day blockade derives its origin from the first formally proclaimed naval blockade by the Dutch against Spanish-controlled Flanders in 1584. The practice has since notably been resorted to by Britishers against France during the Napoleonic War (1803-14), and by the US starting from the American Civil War during the Union Blockade (1861-65), up to the Gulf wars.
Interestingly, the Cold War saw a new facet of this phenomenon, whereby the US imposed a ‘quarantine’ against Cuba to prevent the transportation of missiles by Russia. Blockade being an act of war, the US resorted to the use of the term ‘quarantine’ to avoid any such formal declaration against the USSR. Post-independence, India also decisively imposed a blockade on erstwhile East Pakistan in 1971, preventing the escape of enemy troops and any reinforcements from sea.
In the contemporary era, blockade as a wartime activity finds its legal roots in the 1856 Paris Declaration and the 1909 London Declaration. These international instruments broadly laid down three major requisites for blockades to be legal. First among them being the need for a formal declaration by the warring State/s and notifying all other States of the duration and geographical limits of the blockade. Impartial imposition of the blockade against all States, even the friendly States, is the second requirement. And lastly, the blockade should be effective through the physical presence of warships of the State declaring the blockade.
Nearly 40-45 per cent of India’s crude oil requirement is being sourced from the Middle East, and as per recent reports, India has resumed its crude oil export from Iran. Notably, under the international legal regime, access or departure of vessels from neutral ports/ coasts cannot be barred even through the blockaded area. Thus, apart from imports from Iranian ports/ coasts, the blockade by the US cannot prevent vessels bound to India from other neutral ports in the region. Situation, however, becomes complicated if Iran also imposes any blockade/ maritime exclusion zone/ other similar restrictions.
With the advent of technology and larger commercial interests involved, an emerging concept of Phantom blockade, though not formalised, is on the rise. Phantom blockade is the strategy for imposing a blockade through digital, legal and financial methods. GPS jamming/ spoofing, as one of the means of the digital component of phantom blockade, makes vessels prone to navigational threats and collisions, thereby forcing them to desist from sailing. In case a major power/ insurance body declares certain areas/ sea routes as uninsurable or high risk, prospective exponential financial loss would force commercial shipping operators/ owners to desist from operating in such areas. Additionally, the majority of ports do not permit docking without insurance cover. Through these legal and financial methods, warring States could resort to imposing a Phantom blockade without the physical deployment of even a single warship. This strategy allows for sea deniability at low cost with a legal grey area, and thus would be the preferred option.
Geography is destiny, and in the current conflict, controlling this narrow Strait allows a country to hold veto over the world’s wealth and energy security supply route. What needs to be seen is how the present conflict would shape the new world order, along with a rule-based maritime domain.
(The author is a serving Naval Officer and an expert on maritime operations law.)
(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.)
