High insurance costs can block trade without any weapons
Finance
When the risk of losing a ship becomes too high, underwriters raise prices until maritime passage becomes a financial impossibility, paralyzing global supply chains without firing a single shot.
Global trade does not stop because a ship is physically blocked; it stops because a computer in London or New York decides the risk is too expensive to cover. In the Strait of Hormuz, a sudden 300 percent spike in insurance premiums can transform a profitable voyage into a multi-million-dollar loss overnight. These premiums are essentially a mathematical bet on disaster.