What Ukraine Changed—and What the Strait of Hormuz Exposed
For decades, many global supply chains rewarded efficiency above almost everything else: lean inventories, concentrated production, specialised suppliers, and infrastructure operating close to capacity. The logic is easy to understand. Spare capacity costs money, additional suppliers complicate procurement, and stock that sits unused looks inefficient. Under ordinary conditions, such systems can work remarkably well. Their weakness appears when the conditions stop being ordinary. A supply chain cannot be judged only by what it costs while every component is available and every route remains open. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Europe to confront one concentrated energy dependency. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in 2026 then tested whether Europe had built genuine resilience or merely exchanged a visible dependence on Russian pipelines for a less visible exposure to global shipping, LNG markets, and common chokepoints. Editorial update, 22 September 2026: Thi...