The war’s most far-reaching consequence may be the energy crisis it has unleashed. With the Strait of Hormuz — the world’s most critical oil chokepoint — effectively disrupted, the effects are cascading through economies far from the battlefield.
In Pakistan’s Punjab province, schools that had been shuttered since March 10 due to the global fuel crisis are finally set to reopen on April 1, with classes resuming five days a week. The three-week closure — affecting millions of students — illustrates how a war in the Persian Gulf can shut down classrooms thousands of kilometres away.
Russia, meanwhile, is capitalising on the crisis. A Russian oil tanker is delivering a “humanitarian” cargo of 100,000 tonnes of crude oil to Cuba — a shipment reportedly greenlit by Trump himself. Moscow’s willingness to prop up Havana with discounted energy supplies is a reminder of how great-power rivalries are being reshuffled by the conflict.