Weekly readings

Yemen’s 2024 unfolded as a pivotal year for regional power dynamics, with the Houthi armed group cementing its role as both a disruptive force and a significant player on the global stage. This development was heavily influenced by actions that began in late 2023

Yemen at Risk of Descending into Full-scale Civil War

International Centre for Dialogue Initiatives

This report analyses the evolution of Houthi strategy at sea over the twelve months since the start of the campaign, particularly with regard to targeting criteria, geographic scope and weapons systems used. It also considers the international military response, which includes several multinational naval missions, as well as the actions by Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States against ground targets in Yemen.

Reading Of The Week: Navigating troubled waters The Houthis campaign in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden

The International Institute for Strategic Studies

Yemen is experiencing brutal cycles of drought and deluge, a dangerous combination for a people already facing severe food insecurity. Water scarcity and desertification are among the most complex challenges facing Yemen. The country suffers from chronic water shortages and a high rate of desertification, not to mention natural disasters like floods, droughts, and changing weather patterns such as rising temperatures

From palms to sands. How climate change is destroying green Yemen

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Yemen’s microfinance sector is undergoing a radical transformation. Despite initial success in empowering small businesses, the ongoing conflict has exposed deep vulnerabilities. Competition between the fractured central banks has driven a surge in microfinance bank (MFB) licenses. While this promises to expand financial inclusion, it raises serious concerns about long-term sustainability and financial stability.

Enhancing the Role of Microfinance Banks for Sustainable Impact in Yemen

Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies

The ongoing conflict in Yemen has had devastating effects on the economy, fracturing it along the lines of the warring parties. The country is effectively split between the internationally recognized government, which theoretically controls much of the south but is actually based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the Houthi rebels, who hold sway over the north, including the capital, Sanaa.

Engaging Yemens Private Sector in Peacebuilding Amidst Ongoing Conflict

Manara Magazine

In recent months, as the United States has struggled to deter and degrade the Houthis, Yemen’s United Nations-recognized government has worked to dramatically increase economic pressure on the group. The economy, in particular revenue and liquidity, is the Houthis’ Achilles heel. This is where the group is most vulnerable, and this is exactly where the government in Aden is pressing. This approach, however, also carries significant risks. In the short term, increasing economic pressure on the Houthis is likely to prompt them to reignite attacks on Saudi Arabia, while in the long term it could make reuniting Yemen into a single state all but impossible.

The Houthis Achilles Heel

The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington

On July 20, Israel responded to a deadly Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv with heavy airstrikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeida, destroying most of the site’s oil storage tanks. On one hand, this targeting choice reflects crucial gaps in the international community’s policy toward the group. On the other hand, Hodeida is also a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid, so targeting its infrastructure has negative repercussions for the Yemeni people.

To Stop Israeli Attacks on Yemen, Enforce Sanctions on the Iran-Houthi Link

The Washington Institute

Western navies have found themselves increasingly reliant on weapons systems doctrinally understood as “last lines of defence” in the Red Sea. This article investigates the nature of the Houthi threat and the operational intricacies faced by the “Prosperity Guardian” and “Aspides” coalition missions.

Nobody Does it Better. The Use of CIWS in the Red Sea and The Gulf of Aden

The Security Distillery

Almost six months after the launch of their operations in the Red Sea, the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, continue to keep global trade hostage. This is despite a number of Western operations to contain and degrade the threat they managed to pose, with missiles and drones continuing to be fired at commercial ships who try to cross the Red Sea towards the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.

Taking Stock of Aspides: A Step Forward in Europes Geopolitical Role in the Red Sea?

Brussels International Center

The consultation examined the environmental dimension of local grievances and conflict by exploring Yemenis’ perceptions of environmental issues, their impact on peace and security, and existing or potential environmental peacemaking solutions.

Environmental Pathways for Reconciliation in Yemen - Consultation Report 2024

European Institute of Peace

Yemen’s eastern governorate of Hadramawt has long had a distinct regional identity and recent steps, including the signing of a Hadrami Honor Charter and the formation of the Hadramawt National Council (HNC), have underscored Hadramis’ aspirations for greater empowerment and autonomy at a time of growing competition and contestation, both locally and regionally

The Hadramawt National Council: A strategic move or a tactical reaction?

Middle East Institute

The Houthi attacks on maritime traffic through the Red Sea have created a major global crisis driving up the price of shipping and pushing about 90 percent of container ships to opt for circumventing Africa instead of going through the Suez Canal.

China Sees an Opportunity in the Red Sea Crisis with the Houthis

Stimson

Internet connectivity between parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe suddenly slowed on February 24 when three undersea cables were damaged in the Red Sea. This caused “a significant impact on communication networks in the Middle East,” according to Hong Kong telecoms company HGC Global Communications. The Red Sea is a choke point for global maritime trade—a fact Yemen’s Houthi rebels have taken advantage of by targeting global shipping with missile attacks in recent months. But the sea is also an internet and telecommunications bottleneck. An estimated 90 percent of communications between Europe and Asia and 17 percent of global internet traffic traverse cables under the 14-mile-wide Bab al Mandab Strait.

Reading of the Week: Red Sea Cable Damage Reveals Soft Underbelly of Global Economy

Center for Strategic and International Studies

The operation is a sign of Europe’s willingness to take action against the current instability, though significant work is needed to coordinate with existing initiatives and convince regional officials of the mission’s usefulness.

The EUs New Red Sea Naval Mission: Implications and Challenges

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

In the midst of the 12-week campaign by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen to disrupt the critical shipping corridor of the Red Sea, a new worry is creeping in: that the Houthis may target the bevy of subsea cables that carry nearly all the data and financial communications between Europe and Asia

Reading of the Week: The Houthis Next Target May Be Underwater

Foreign Policy Magazine

For the first time in four decades, a core U.S. interest in the region on which successive American presidents have based U.S. Middle East policy - freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce - is increasingly at risk. By enabling the Houthis in Yemen to attack international vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with armed drones and sophisticated anti-ship missiles, Iran, as it did in the Gulf in the late 1980s, is causing tremendous harm to commercial activity in one of the world’s most crucial waterways.

Reading of the Week: A Strategy for Countering the Houthi Threat at Sea

Middle East Institute

On January 12, the US launched, in collaboration with the UK and with the support of Canada, Australia, Netherlands and Bahrain, its first-ever raids against Houthis’ military sites in Yemen since October 7. This occurred three months after the Houthis initiated unrestrained attacks on Israel and commercial navigation in the Red Sea.

The Houthis, Yemen, the Middle East: Four things the US shouldnt underestimate about the Red Sea Crisis

Italian Institute for International Political Studies

The group is using a wide range of weapons and tactics to escalate its disruption of regional maritime security, establishing selective sea denial against Israeli vessels seeking passage through the strait and threatening U.S. warships that show up to protect them

Under Fire in the Bab al-Mandab: Houthi Military Capabilities and U.S. Response Options

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

A senior Houthi delegation arrived in Riyadh on September 14, the first such trip since the outset of the conflict. Bilateral Saudi-Houthi talks began in earnest after a failure to extend a UN-sanctioned truce last year and accelerated after a Beijing-brokered détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the spring. Talks appeared to stall over the summer, but the visit suggests progress on a deal could be shortly forthcoming.

Houthis Make Official Visit to Riyadh for Talks with Saudi Arabia

Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies

This report examines the prolonged political, humanitarian and developmental challenges faced by Yemen. It offers a range of recommended actions for the international community to address these issues effectively. Yemen is grappling with a severe humanitarian crisis triggered by ongoing conflict, economic instability and climate change-related disasters. The country is experiencing escalating temperatures, rising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns, resulting in devastating floods, droughts, water scarcity and soil degradation.

Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet in Yemen

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Over eight years of war in Yemen have had dire consequences on people’s day-to-day lives and shaped their definitions and perceptions of peace. Years of failed negotiations have allowed the warring factions to monopolize conversations on peace. Within these negotiations, women at both the local and national level have been largely excluded, despite them being at the forefront of mitigating the war’s impact on Yemenis. Utilizing a community-centered approach, this study seeks to give agency to Yemenis to define peace based on their own lived experiences, propose practices that promote women’s role in peacebuilding, and suggest ways to mitigate local practices that produce or reproduce gender inequalities and violent or non-peaceful practices. The study heavily draws on feminist literature that argues the ‘hidden’ everyday practices carried out by women — procreation, day-to-day routines, caregiving, satisfying basic human needs, negotiating inequalities, social relations, and resolving conflict—are integral to social cohesion, but inadequately researched nor recognized.

GRASSROOTS VOICES: Women and Everyday Peacebuilding in Yemen

SANAA

Yemen is becoming an ever more fragmented country – to such an extent that it may soon be impossible ever to piece it back together again. A combination of internal dynamics exacerbated by the actions of neighbouring states has brought Yemen to this pass. For the international community, and the European Union and European states, addressing this will be difficult – but they can do so by providing long-term help, rather than lurching between short-term fixes.

Fragmentation Nation: How Europeans Can Help End The Conflict In Yemen

European Council on Foreign Relations

Saudi Arabia’s security-oriented approach to Yemen has foundered. The Saudi-led coalition has failed to defeat the Houthis militarily or to restore the government the group toppled. Moreover, Saudi militarization of the border with Yemen has damaged the Yemeni economy—with negative consequences for Saudi Arabia. Crucially, Saudi Arabia’s security is contingent on Yemen’s stability and economic prosperity. As such, Riyadh should contribute to reviving Yemen’s moribund economy, both in the borderlands and in the inland agricultural sector.

The Pitfalls of Saudi Arabias Security-Centric Strategy in Yemen

Carnegie Middle East Center

On July 23, 2022, the Iran-backed Houthi militia attacked the residential neighborhood of Zaid al-Moshki in Taiz, one of Yemen’s most populous cities, killing one child and injuring 11 others, most of whom were under the age of 10. The attack, which drew U.N. condemnation, was particularly troubling given the U.N.-brokered truce that went into effect on April 2.

Yemens Truce Has Failed in Taiz

Middle East Institute