I'm John Batchel, the Straits of her moves, Bob Elmandeb, two choke points.

In the news, always now, with the worldwide concern of resources not coming out of the Persian Gulf, at risk in the Red Sea. Asia,

the Europeans, all of the Americas are gravely concerned because of what this is doing, the prospects,

not only of prosperity, but in some

instances, the risk of famine that's coming up in a few months' time. Something must be done.

I welcome Z. Wang, Emily Wang, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, who has introduced

me to the thinking about choke points on the basis of history. 1936, the Montreau

treaty allowed the powers that existed at the time, badly damaged by the World War. But here we are

looking again to a confrontation that we know was tragedy. 1936, summertime. We know tragedy's coming.

Still, the powers set together and conducted a way to keep the Dardanelles open,

the passageway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

Emily has taught me that if you can do that, you can do anything.

Those powers were armed, and they

were about to badger each other to the exhaustion of the planet. Here we are in 2026. Emily, thank you.

I know that we talked about this the other day, but you gave me this idea, and I think it's wonderful

that enemies or adversaries can sit at the table and come to a

conclusion. We certainly have that in the Strait of Formuz and the Baba Mendeb right now, and I read

this within hours of talking to you, Emily, Reuters, April 29. The U.S. is pushing for other countries

to form an international coalition to restore freedom of navigation in the

Straits of Hormuz, according to a State Department cable seen by Reuters. Within a few hours of that,

we come to this. New Zealand says we're ready to help, but they require ceasefire before

backing U.S. Hormu's mission.

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