What Is the "Strait" of Hormuz?

Strait of Hormuz#1

This video deals with the knowledge and arguments necessary to understand the Strait of Hormuz. I will not present a single “why.” My role is to rearrange the elements in a way different from the summaries that are already widely circulated. And I think that this is the most indirect and effective way to resolve the conflicts that have recently arisen between states.

Part 1: “Strait”

One effective way for human beings to reach a state in which they feel they have understood something is to accept it in relation to other things. For example, if someone asks, “Where is the station?” and hears the answer, “The station is where the station ought to be,” we would not feel that any understanding has been provided. But if we hear, “The station is next to School A,” we would find that much more plausible. Of course, that is only on the assumption that we already know where School A is.

And if someone asks where School A is, and the answer is, “School A is next to the station,” that is merely cross-reference and does not give any actual coordinates. Yet when the chain of relations becomes so distant that people can no longer concretely imagine and trace it, they may sometimes still feel that they have understood it.

To understand what a strait is, I will first use a definition.
To define a concept, one must say what category it belongs to, and what distinguishes it from other things. For example, to define a chair, one might say, “A chair, the definiendum, is a piece of furniture, the genus, made for sitting, the differentia.”

If we define a strait, it is “a narrow and long body of water lying between two landmasses, a natural waterway connecting two larger seas or maritime areas.” Now let us place alongside it some concepts that are similar to a strait but different from it, and in that way try to understand the strait.

1. Canal

First, the canal.
Ordinarily, waterways are formed through long-term changes in terrain, erosion, and sedimentation. A canal, by contrast, is a waterway dug by human engineering. Therefore, the essence of a canal lies not in natural formation, but in design and construction.

What is interesting is that because a canal is made by humans, its width, depth, and even the placement of its bends can be adjusted relatively artificially. A strait is different. A strait is a natural waterway that must be used on the basis of the terrain and water conditions already formed. The Suez Canal is the result of design, but the Strait of Hormuz is the result of natural formation.

2. Gulf

Next is the gulf. A gulf is a space formed where the sea extends deep into the land.
If a strait is a “passage,” a gulf is a relatively enclosed interior space. Because three of its sides are surrounded by land, it has a different character from an open body of water directly exposed to the outer sea.

Let us suppose that there is a large interior space called the Persian Gulf. If large-scale resources, ports, and industrial facilities are concentrated within it, then the importance of the outlet leading outside becomes even greater. That outlet is the Strait of Hormuz. In other words, the gulf exists, and therefore the function of the strait becomes even clearer. If the gulf is a structure that accumulates resources inside, then the strait is the passage through which they are connected to the outside.

3. Peninsula

Third, the peninsula is a useful contrasting concept for explaining how a strait is formed.
A peninsula is a form in which land protrudes far out into the sea. And when such peninsulas protrude at length, or when two land structures face one another, the width of the water between them may naturally become narrow.

In this sense, the peninsula and the strait stand in contrast to one another. In a peninsula, land stands at the forefront. In a strait, the body of water left between those land structures becomes the center. The Arabian Peninsula and the Iranian Plateau are two large land structures facing one another and limiting the width of the water between them. That narrow connecting section is precisely what we call a strait.

4. Strait

At last, today’s main subject, the strait.
A strait may be defined, in a word, as a narrow natural waterway connecting two large bodies of water. In terms of genus, it is a “natural waterway,” and its differentia are that it is “narrow and long” and that it “connects two seas or maritime areas.”

A strait does not possess its meaning in isolation so much as have its function determined by what it connects and to what. One may think of it as a situation in which a large body of water A and a large body of water B are connected, but the land on either side lies so close that only a narrow body of water remains available for passage.

That is why, compared to broader waters, a strait has a higher density of vessels and greater constraints on navigation, and it also has higher military and economic sensitivity. From the point of view of the movement of logistics and energy, a strait can be an efficient shortcut, but for the same reason it is also a vulnerable segment that is easily subject to control and blockade.