Through one of the world's most consequential waterways, the rhythm of commerce has grown quiet. The Strait of Hormuz — long the passage through which a fifth of global oil and gas travels — saw vessel traffic fall by two-thirds in a single week as US-Iran tensions reshape the calculus of maritime risk. Saudi Arabia, its inland pipeline severed by Houthi strikes, has turned back toward the very strait it once sought to avoid, recovering its export volumes even as the broader shipping lane grows sparse with uncertainty. The world's energy flows have held, for now, but the architecture of that s