Countries' reliance on maritime chokepoints is increasingly rendering the availability of goods and energy supplies vulnerable to a range of threats, including geopolitical tensions, conflict, militancy, piracy and severe weather events. The growth of global trade since the advent of containerization in the shipping industry in the 1950s has led countries to increasingly rely on oceans to ship goods and energy products, particularly due to the lower cost and higher capacity of maritime shipping compared with air transport. Over 80% of global trade volume is carried by sea, with anywhere from 4,950 to 258,000 metric tons of cargo funneling daily between the world's least trafficked and most trafficked waterways. While these waterways have helped improve the reliability of supply chains and fostered global economic growth, their ever-rising traffic and often limited capacity have also gradually transformed them into chokepoints. These bottlenecks are vulnerable to geopolitical crises and conflict, physical security...
