New Delhi, April 6 -- The world has been through this before. Oil prices spike, supply chains shudder and emerging economies absorb the pain while advanced nations reach for their strategic reserves. But the conflict now roiling West Asia carries a twist that policymakers must not overlook: this is not a health shock, as covid was. It is an energy shock rooted in geopolitics. This distinction matters.

When covid struck, the blow fell directly on final consumption and production. Today's shock is upstream, striking at the intermediate inputs that power virtually everything else. That changes the transmission mechanism, policy toolkit and likely duration of pain.

Comparisons with the 1973 Opec embargo or 1979 Iranian Revolution are more u...