For half a year, the world absorbed the shock of a partially closed Strait of Hormuz through rerouting and restraint — a fragile equilibrium that now threatens to collapse. Recent strikes on Saudi pipeline infrastructure and Houthi dominance over the Red Sea have stripped away the last available buffers, sending oil prices from the $70s toward $110 a barrel and raising the specter of a cascading global economic crisis. Foreign Affairs argues that the United States stands at a threshold moment: the window for diplomacy with Iran remains open, but the cost of inaction is being measured in real t