How Iran Weaponized the World’s Most Important Oil Chokepoint

Episode notes

Edward Fishman joins Rory for a sweeping conversation on the evolution of modern economic warfare, the origins of U.S. sanctions strategy against Iran, and how today’s Strait of Hormuz crisis is reshaping global energy markets in real time. Drawing from his book Choke Points , Fishman explains how sanctions, secondary sanctions, and financial pressure campaigns evolved from quiet Treasury Department diplomacy into one of America’s most powerful geopolitical tools. The discussion also explores why oil prices have remained surprisingly subdued despite major supply disruptions, including the role of Trump’s public interventions, market psychology, and the growing belief that geopolitical risk no longer guarantees an oil price spike. Rory and Eddie debate whether Iran has permanently changed the balance of power in the Persian Gulf by effectively institutionalizing control over the Strait of Hormuz and what that means for global trade, shipping, and future sanctions policy.

• Why Oil Tankers Still Are Not Returning to the Strait of Hormuz96 / 100
• Bob McNally on Hormuz, Oil Prices, and the End of Energy Security Assumptions
• Energy Stocks Are Still Cheap? Eric Nuttall Explains the Opportunity
• Tracking Tankers Through Chaos: Shadow Fleets, Blockades, and the New Oil War
• Amena Bakr on the Market Blindness to the 13 Million Barrel Shock