For three decades, international trade theory rested on a comforting assumption: that physical logistics infrastructure was essentially agnostic—a neutral circulatory system through which global commerce flowed undisturbed.

That consensus has dissolved. From naval inspection protocols in Geneva to contested subsea cable repairs in the Red Sea, infrastructure is no longer the backdrop of geopolitics; it is the battlefield itself.

When states discover that a single customs inspection software algorithm can throttle an adversary's industrial output faster than a naval blockade, the very concept of a 'neutral corridor' becomes a diplomatic fiction.

If policymakers wish to prevent catastrophic supply chain fragmentation, they must stop pretending that trade agreements exist outside the gravity of hard power.