President Trump has taken the contest over the Strait of Hormuz beyond blockades, shipping lanes, and naval power. Speaking in Garden City, New York, he declared that once the United States finished defeating Iran, he would “pretty soon” designate the strait as American territory. He reinforced the point by noting that the United States controls…
The “Golden Fleet,” Deism, and the Perils of Designing a World You Refuse to Govern
The U.S. Navy’s so-called Golden Fleet initiative sketches a vision that is at once ambitious and revealing. At the surface level, the story is about ships: numbers, readiness, industrial capacity, and the strategic anxieties of an increasingly dangerous world. But beneath the steel and spreadsheets lies a deeper question about how America understands power, responsibility,…