Chokepoint & Route Control

chokepoint-route-control measures structural power over the physical arteries of global movement — command of the straits and sea-lanes others depend on, provision of their security, and authorship of the rules transport must conform to. The structural question is: who controls the routes others cannot avoid, and sets the terms of passage? — not who owns the largest fleet. This is where Strange parents transport: under Security, not Production.

Strange's naval example is the decisive parallel — relational sea power was only the necessary condition; the structural power was the regime of rules laid down — and she places transport's parentage squarely under Security:

• "The relational power of Allied warships over neutral merchant ships was the basis or necessary condition for the setting of a highly partial security structure within which trade could be carried on. It was accepted and traders conformed to the rules laid down by the two great naval powers, so that it came briefly to resemble a regime or power structure" (Strange 1994, p.34) — naval force was the necessary condition; the rule-regime over passage was the structure.
• "transport has to be looked at as a product of the four primary structures" (Strange 1994, p.141), and the parent among the four is Security: "security was still the major consideration for national governments, whether in the management of transport by sea in ships, or later by air in aircraft… the concerns of the larger and more powerful states for their own security have set the ground rules for the international transport systems with which lesser states or newcomer states have had to conform" (Strange 1994, p.142). Strange traces this to first principles — "the first 'transport' interest of the state has been to have roads for armies to march on… The prime purpose of the transport system was to increase the security of the empire" (Strange 1994, p.142).
• The structural lever is "the prices charged and the terms customarily laid down for the carriage of goods or people" (Strange 1994, p.141), not fleet tonnage.