Trump’s warning
to Oman over its negotiations with Iran comes as the closure of the Strait of
Hormuz is once again putting upward pressure on petroleum prices.
August 17, 2026 Alberto Garzón In September 2010, a Chinese
fishing vessel was detained by the Japanese Coast Guard near the disputed
Senkaku Islands. China’s unofficial response was to halt rare-earth exports to
Japan—a country whose entire electronics industry depended on them. The dispute
was brief: Japan released the captain, and China never formally acknowledged
the embargo. But that episode became a geopolitical watershed, exposing the
enormous dependence of the developed world on a single country’s monopoly over
the minerals that are indispensable for the energy and digital transitions.
Interdependence, once praised as a virtue of globalization, had become a weapon
and a vulnerability.1
Dora
Weiland (1892-?) from Wietze uses a hand scoop to fill barrels with oil that
has run together in pits. By Unknown author - Deutsches Erdölmuseum Wietze
(Erdoel Museum), CC BY 2.5, Link.