Oil has crossed the $100-per-barrel threshold once more, not as a speculative tremor but as a measured response to genuine peril — strikes on Saudi energy infrastructure and the contested waters of the Strait of Hormuz have reminded markets that the arteries of global energy remain exposed. What makes this moment distinct is not the price itself but the silence where diplomacy once stood: without active efforts at de-escalation, uncertainty compounds, and uncertainty is its own kind of fuel. The world now watches the interplay between conflict in the Middle East and appetite in China, knowing