In the spirit of the Washington Consensus, globalisation promised a world in which goods, capital, technology, and information would circulate with ever fewer barriers. Yet the networks that enabled this integration have also created new concentrations of power. Beneath the apparent openness of the global economy lie strategic dependencies: ports through which trade must pass, technologies that industries cannot easily replace, financial infrastructures that sustain transactions, and minerals without which entire supply chains would falter.
Along the 56th meridian east, near the Strait of Hormuz, this contradiction takes geographical form. One of the world's most consequential maritime passages has recently reminded us that the openness of global trade depends on narrow corridors whose control carries disproportionate influence. Yet the geography of power extends far beyond what maps reveal.
What makes chokepoints strategically significant is not scarcity alone, but the power to determine who gains access and on what terms. Economic interdependence, long understood primarily as a source of mutual prosperity and a foundation for international cooperation, has become an instrument of strategic competition. States increasingly seek not only access to global networks, but influence over the terms on which others may use them.
The first edition of Hegemon examines this transformation across the physical, financial, and digital infrastructures of the global economy. It explores how ownership, regulation, and technological dependence are reshaping the distribution of economic power.
At its heart lies a fundamental question: in an interconnected world, does power belong to those who participate in global networks, or to those who control their passage?
Romain Le Dily
Deputy Managing Editor, Content
