Navigation is becoming dangerous not only through the Strait of Hormuz, but also through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea.
This is intolerable for both oil-producing nations and trading nations. Nor does the United States military appear to retain the ability to secure these waterways by force.
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If military force cannot solve the problem, perhaps money can. Both Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Houthis need money. Iran, moreover, cannot export its own oil if the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
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The tolls would hardly be high enough to seriously hit the maritime transport. We could simply regard these waterways as toll routes, much like the Panama and Suez Canals—although, unlike Hormuz, neither is an international strait.
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Why not establish a system under which the coastal states receive agreed shares of standardized transit fees, with the scheme jointly administered by representatives of the coastal states, the principal user nations, and the United Nations?
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Should—or could—a similar system be created for the Strait of Malacca or the Taiwan Strait? That is another question altogether.
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