Marcus Hand watched from the editor’s desk at Seatrade Maritime News as the Indian Ocean turned into a shooting gallery this week. On Tuesday, a cargo ship departing the Somali coast reported that its security team was forced to trade gunfire with armed men in a small boat after a second vessel was hijacked in less than seven days. According to the Maritime Executive, the hijacking of the product tanker near Hafun marks a resurgence of piracy that hasn't been seen at this scale since 2011.

This is the physical fallout of the Strait of Hormuz blockade. As the U.S. and Iran trade blows in the Gulf, nearly 1,000 ships and 20,000 crew members are currently stranded in the Arabian Gulf, per maritime reports. The closure of these corridors has created a macro-energy starvation that is driving local actors to desperate, kinetic measures. The pirates are no longer just looking for ransoms; they are hunting for the fuel and goods that the Western blockade has removed from the market.

The security team on the cargo ship fired a series of warning shots as the pirates approached within 150 nautical miles of the coast. But warning shots won't fix a broken global supply chain. This is the 'Engineered Thirst' of the Middle East spilling into the high seas. The empire's attempt to choke the energy routes is creating a vacuum where the only law is the caliber of your rifle.