Senior Associate Research Fellow, Italian Institute for International Political Studies
Eleonora Ardemagni is a senior associate research fellow at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, a teaching assistant at the Catholic University of Milan, and an adjunct professor at Aseri (Graduate School of Economics and International Relations).
Saudi Arabia has looked to the Red Sea through the lens of economic investment and infrastructure, but an economy-center focus is insufficient to address the various factors causing instability in the region.
The United States, the Gulf Arab states, and Israel face escalated threats, both rhetorical and real.
On October 26, AGSIW hosted a discussion on the prospects for the end of the conflict in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia’s new, exit-focused strategy for Yemen implicitly weakens the country’s formal institutions and provides greater political leverage for the Houthis, imposing indirect costs that could undercut prospects for a broader U.N.-led Yemeni peace process.
The Houthi campaign to deny revenue and resources to Yemen’s U.N.-recognized government threatens the country’s long-term stability and risks upending any Saudi-Houthi deal.
Qatar is relying on a robust injection of security capabilities and training from partner countries to help it cope with the challenges and potential risks of hosting such a large international event and has worked to take advantage of this security response to drive its national security strategy.
Lacking and intermittent payments to soldiers risk incentivizing local small wars that could persist regardless of whether a national conflict resolution deal is achieved.
Without a durable political agreement to end Yemen’s conflict, the country will remain divided, unable to assume a coherent stance on issues affecting maritime stability.
The recent regional alignment between Saudi Arabia and Sudan sheds light on a shift in the Saudi geopolitics of aid. Following an announcement at the end of February of the suspension of a major military aid package to Lebanon, Riyadh granted $5 billion in military aid to Khartoum, marking a change of alliance for the regime of Omar Al-Bashir, a longtime Iranian ally.
