CHOKE POINTS

A strait is a naturally formed passage connecting two large water bodies. Canal too connects two large water bodies but are man-made i.e. intentionally constructed for faster connectivity. We can call it a man-made strait. Canals such as the Panama Canal(connecting Pacific and Atlantic) and Suez Canal(connecting Red sea and the Mediterranean) have drastically reduced the time required for inter Continental connectivity and are of massive economic value. Recently when the Suez Canal was blocked it costed dearly in economic terms an estimated loss of $ 54 billion in trade. The enormous dependence on Straits and canals also means it is of tremendous strategic importance to countries, total control over one of the busiest choke points gives a country immense bargaining power and will be an obvious member in any global trade-related groupings.

Some of the world’s busiest Straits include Malacca Strait, Strait of Hormuz, Dover Strait, Bosphorus Strait, The Danish Straits, Sunda Strait among others that connect prominent continents. Malacca strait is the shortest shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Among artificial shipping routes, Germany’s Kiel Canal is the world’s busiest canal which accommodates more ships than the Suez and Panama Canal combined.

In today’s highly globalized world imports and exports are a necessary part of daily commercial business. Trade with other countries is one of the ways how countries can establish their presence for profitability or goodwill(or both)in a foreign land. All of these in turn for their faster functionality are dependent on Straits and Canals. Any obstruction or blockage of one of these chokepoints can have a vast and far-reaching cascading effect.