Between 1984 and 1988, Iranian and Iraqi forces attacked approximately 500 commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf. The Tanker Wars — that portion of the Iran-Iraq conflict that spilled into the maritime domain — were the most sustained campaign of attacks on commercial shipping since the Second World War. They established the template for how straits and sea lanes become instruments of war, how insurance markets respond to sustained maritime threats, and how major powers calculate the costs and limits of intervention in Gulf conflicts. The lessons were not adequately remembered in subsequent decades.