In military strategy, a choke point (or chokepoint) is a geographical feature (such as a valley or defile) which forces an army to go into a narrower formation (greatly decreasing combat power) in order to pass through it. A choke point would allow a numerically inferior army to successfully fend off a larger army since the attacker would not be able to bring his superior numbers to bear.

The most important naval choke points were first identified by John Arbuthnot Fisher in his defense of continued British colonialism (important colonies in parentheses): John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (January 25, 1841 – July 10, 1920), commonly known as Jackie Fisher, was a British admiral known for his efforts at naval reform. ...

• Hormuz Strait between Oman and Iran at the entrance to the Persian Gulf (Oman)
• Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia (Singapore)
• Bab-el-Mandeb passage from the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea (Yemen and Socotra)
• Panama Canal and the Panama Pipeline connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans (British Honduras)
• Suez Canal and the Sumed Pipeline connecting the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea (Egypt)
• The Turkish Straits/Bosporus linking the Black Sea (and oil coming from the Caspian Sea region) to the Mediterranean Sea (Cyprus)
• The Strait of Gibraltar (Gibraltar)
• Cape Horn (Falklands)
• The Cape of Good Hope (South Africa)

These choke points continue to be the sites of conflicts and piracy today because of their critical role in global economy for the transshipment of goods and oil. However their importance has diminished somewhat as commerce has developed on other networks such as aviation. There is also the potential for other naval chokepoints on both the local and global scale - the development of the Northwest Passage for instance. Historical map of the area (1892) Map Of Strait of Hormuz Satellite image The Strait of Hormuz (Arabic: ‎, Persian: ‎) is a narrow, strategically important stretch of ocean between the Gulf of Oman in the southeast and the Persian Gulf in the southwest. ... Map of the Persian Gulf. ... A close-up map showing the Strait of Malacca separating peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. ... The Bab-el-Mandeb (Arabic for the gate of tears) is the strait separating the continents of Asia (Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula) and Africa (Somalia on the Horn of Africa), connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean (Gulf of Aden). ... The Arabian Sea (Arabic: بحر العرب; transliterated: Bahr al-Arab) is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui, the north-east point of Somalia... Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... Map of the Socotra archipelago Socotra or Soqotra (Arabic سقطرى ; ) is a small archipelago of four islands and islets in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Horm Africa some 350 km south of the Arabian peninsula. ... Two Panamax running the Miraflores Locks The Panama Canal (Spanish: ) is a major ship canal that traverses the Isthmus of Panama in Central America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. ... Flag Capital Belize City Language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy History  - Established 1871  - Disestablished 1981 Area 22,966 km2 8,867 sq mi Currency British Honduran dollar Flag of British Honduras British Honduras was the former name of what is now the independent nation of Belize and was a British... For other uses, see Suez (disambiguation). ... Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ... I LOVE BORAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Two bridges cross the Bosporus. ... For other uses, see Black Sea (disambiguation). ... The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the worlds largest lake or a full-fledged sea. ... Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space (on the left: Spain) A view across the Strait of Gibraltar taken from the hills over Tarifa, Spain The Strait of Gibraltar (Arabic: مضيق جبل طارق, Spanish: Estrecho de Gibraltar) is the strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain... Cape Horn from the South. ... The Falkland Islands are an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic consisting of two main islands known as East Falkland and West Falkland and a number of smaller islands. ... The Cape of Good Hope; looking towards the west, from the coastal cliffs above Cape Point. ... This article is about maritime piracy. ... Transshipment is the shipment of goods to an intermediate destination, and then from there to yet another destination. ... Look up aviation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Northwest Passage (disambiguation). ...

Some famous examples of the tactical use of choke points are King Leonidas's defense of the Pass of Thermopylae during an invasion led by Xerxes I of Persia and the Battle of Agincourt, where Henry V of England decisively defeated the French when they were forced to attack his smaller army through a narrow gap in the Agincourt woods. For other uses, see Leonidas (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Battle of Thermopylae (disambiguation). ... Xerxes the Great (Old Persian: 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠[2]) was a king of Persia (reigned 485 BC–465 BC) of the Achaemenid dynasty. ... Combatants Kingdom of England Kingdom of France Commanders Henry V of England Charles dAlbret Strength About 6,000 (but see Modern re-assessment). ... Henry V of England (16 September 1387 – 31 August 1422) was one of the great warrior kings of the Middle Ages. ...

"Chokepoint" is synonymous with "bottleneck". In network security, the firewall between a local network and the Internet is considered a choke point because any attacker would have to come through that channel, which would be guarded carefully. In graph theory and network analysis, a chokepoint is any node in a network with a high centrality. A bottleneck is literally the neck of a glass or pottery bottle. ... This article is about the network security device. ... A pictorial representation of a graph In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of graphs, mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects from a certain collection. ... Network analysis is the analysis of networks through network theory (or more generally graph theory). ... Within graph theory, there are various measures of the centrality of a vertex within a graph. ...

References

• US Energy Information Administration