Two of the world's most consequential maritime passages — the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb — are simultaneously under pressure, as regional conflict compresses the arteries through which a significant share of global energy flows. On Thursday, only four vessels transited Hormuz against a ten-day average of sixteen, while Houthi consolidation of Yemen's Red Sea coast and retaliatory Saudi airstrikes cast new uncertainty over the alternative route that shippers had quietly come to depend upon. The world has long understood that geography concentrates vulnerability; what this moment rev