Big states like the China and the US used to think they had a near-monopoly on ruinous economic warfare. Recent events have shown how wrong that was.
Here’s Edward Fishman, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations — and author of a book on financial warfare and economic “chokepoints” — speaking to Soumaya Keynes on the FT’s Economics Show podcast:
The most important geoeconomic story of 2025 was China’s embargo on rare earth minerals . . . [which] totally changed the conversation . . . And I think the most consequential geoeconomic story of 2026 so far is Tehran’s use of the Strait of Hormuz as a choke point.
So in both this year and last year, there’s actually been a US adversary that’s used a choke point against the United States. That’s been the key story, and I think it demonstrates that today’s age of economic warfare is not unipolar.”
The main US tools of economic warfare has primarily been financial: sanctions, export controls, and tariffs. Iran’s tools are physical. By in effect closing the Strait of Hormuz, it has ensured that a host of crucial things cannot get to where they need to be.