For decades the term “chokepoints” has referred to places, usually narrow maritime passages, through which a great deal of traffic needs to move: the Panama Canal, the Bosporus, the Strait of Malacca. In the over-quoted words of Sir Walter Raleigh: “Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.” Despite the technological revolutions of the past centuries, this remains true: over 80 percent of world trade by volume travels by sea, and disruptions such as the Ever Given container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal—or the blockades of the Strait of Hormuz—still send ripples through the global economy. For a century American naval strategy and geopolitical dominance have relied in part on control over important maritime routes.…