Choke Points: The Warm War

Choke points are where systems reveal their leverage.
From shipping straits and deltas to data cables and financial circuits, these are the sites where energy, capital, and information converge and where planetary futures are contested.

Our world-system today resembles an intricate mosaic: extractive industries, predictive technologies, and militarised infrastructures interlace to form the backbone of the 21st century. These dynamics echo the Cold War, yet they have transformed into something new: the Warm War.

Defining the Warm War

The Warm War is not a metaphorical battle, but a planetary process. It describes the acceleration of energy use, material extraction, and information flow that binds us into dense interdependent systems.

Choke points make this process visible. They show where manufacturers, distributors, governments, and communities intersect, and where designers can step in to work with stakeholders on the ground.

Sites of Transformation

Choke Points: The Warm War traces how Cold War infrastructures continue to shape contemporary planetary flows and asks how their legacies are being reconfigured.

Our work begins with sites of concentrated transformation:

• Singapore’s land reclamation, exposing the financial architectures and geopolitical stakes behind reshaping coastlines.
• The Mekong Delta, where agricultural legacies are redirected by state authority, capital, and international agencies.
• Global straits and urban expansions, where ecological systems, logistics, and political ambition converge.

These sites reveal how energy, money, and governance operate through choke points to restructure entire regions. They also reveal the imaginaries that act as engines of the system, shaping how futures are imagined and materialised.

Methods of Inquiry

We combine pattern recognition and simulation to map hidden dynamics across ecological, technical, and financial systems. We practice planetary-sensitive planning to create frameworks for designers and stakeholders to act within complexity. We use negotiation and collaboration to bring manufacturers, distributors, communities, and advocacy groups into new kinds of conversation.

Imaginaries and Engines

Mainstream sustainability discourse often hides the real engines of change: the people and organisations producing the imaginaries that shape policy, finance, and design.

By highlighting these dynamics, Choke Points: The Warm War helps partners move beyond analysis into dialogue — working with those who build, distribute, and imagine the infrastructures of the future.

From Leverage to Negotiation

This project is not about retreating from complexity. It is about learning from it and using choke points as entry points for negotiation.

By stepping into conversations with manufacturers, distributors, designers, and local stakeholders, we aim to forge new pathways for adaptive governance and resilient futures.