A nation must think before it acts.
F or more than half a century, threats in the Persian Gulf have had repercussions beyond instability and conflict in the region itself. The Gulf has become a geopolitical and geo-economic epicenter for the rest of the world. This is, of course, mainly due to the industrialized states’ voracious appetite for oil and fear of interruptions in their access to the Gulf region’s enormous oil reserves. But the specific nature of the threats to Gulf oil access has changed sufficiently over the years that we may speak of new threats.