At a narrow passage where continents nearly touch, the ancient logic of sea power has reasserted itself. Italy, unwilling to wait for the slow consensus of collective governance, is dispatching warships to the Bab al-Mandeb strait — a 30-kilometre corridor through which a seventh of the world's trade now flows with heightened urgency since Iran's closure of Hormuz. The decision reflects a deeper tension in the post-multilateral moment: when chokepoints tighten and bureaucracies deliberate, nations reach for the tools they trust most.