The Suez Canal Seizure
Egypt nationalizes and closes the Suez Canal during a debt crisis. 12% of global trade halts overnight.
Facing sovereign default and IMF austerity demands, Egypt's president announces the immediate nationalization of the Suez Canal Authority, expelling all foreign technical staff and closing the waterway to commercial traffic until "fair transit fees reflecting Egypt's sovereign rights" are negotiated.
You are the US Secretary of State
The Situation Room
>Over 50 container ships are stranded at both ends of the canal. Insurance companies suspend coverage for all vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean.
>European energy prices spike 40% within hours as LNG tankers are forced to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope.
>The Egyptian military has deployed anti-ship missile batteries along both banks of the canal.
Internal Briefing Notes
• The 1888 Convention of Constantinople guarantees free passage through the Suez Canal, but enforcement has always depended on great-power willingness to act.
• 12% of global trade and 30% of global container shipping passes through Suez annually.
• Rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope adds 10-14 days to Europe-Asia shipping, costing the global economy an estimated $10 billion per week.
Escalation Window
Reveal each phase to see how the situation deteriorates.
Global commerce is hemorrhaging billions per day. Egypt is armed and desperate. What do you recommend?
Choose your response. There are no good options.
Accept higher transit fees and Egyptian sovereignty demands. You reopen the canal but establish the precedent that any nation can hold global trade hostage.
Secure the canal by force. Risk a military conflict in a dense civilian area, and confirm every developing nation's fear about Western neo-colonialism.
Beijing's loan reopens the canal, but China gains decisive leverage over the world's most critical shipping chokepoint.
Related Entities
Explore the institutions, countries, and actors involved in this scenario.
Egypt
country in Northeast Africa and Southwest Asia
United States
Federal presidential republic and the world's largest economy, with power divided among the presidency, Congress, the states, and the federal courts. U.S. politics is highly polarized, two-party dominated, and globally consequential because decisions made in Washington shape finance, trade, security alliances, technology regulation, and military power far beyond U.S. borders.
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