From the strait of Hormuz to the North Sea, a global maritime war rages around us – and more than the price of oil is at stake | Simon Tisdall

The collapse of the rules-based order is not confined to the land: we're imperilled as centuries of maritime cooperation sink beneath the waves

The US military campaign to protect merchant shipping from Iranian attacks by asserting direct maritime control in the strait of Hormuz is not an idea unique to Donald Trump's administration. Almost exactly 200 years ago, in the period 1825-27, a powerful US naval squadron led by Commodore John Rodgers was sent to the Mediterranean to defend American ships from the depredations of Greek corsairs and pirates.

For all the new-minted republic's brave talk of liberty, the US squadron did not assist Greece's ongoing regime change" struggle for independence from the Ottoman empire. Its sole, self-serving purpose was to defend US trade, markets and business interests. After abandoning his call for a people's revolution in Tehran, this, too, is what Trump's reckless war with Iran has now boiled down to.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator