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Iran calls US interdictions piracy. The US calls Iran’s toll extortion. Both are arguing over a treaty, UNCLOS, that neither has ratified. That is the institutional core of the crisis: a dual blockade of one-fifth of global seaborne energy, invoking legal norms from a treaty both parties have explicitly declined to join. The flag states of the trapped ships have no tribunal. A ceasefire reopens the water. Only a treaty resolves the governance vacuum.

The Malacca Strait carries 23.2 million barrels per day, 29 percent of global seaborne oil, through a 900km corridor with no treaty-backed toll authority. Between 20 and 24 April, six major outlets ran Malacca explainers triggered by the Hormuz vacuum. Asian capitals are pricing in what had been a dormant vulnerability. The Hormuz crisis is teaching the world what the cost of ungoverned chokepoints actually looks like.