Hal Brands, a member of the Foreign Policy Council at the US State Department, said that the Yemeni operations that closed the Red Sea to Israeli, American, and British navigation were the biggest surprise in the events witnessed by the Arab region and the most ominous for the world order.
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Brands said in an article on Bloomberg entitled (America is losing the battle of the Red Sea), that the “Houthis,” whom most Americans had not heard of before, formed the most dangerous challenge to freedom of the seas in decades — and arguably beaten a weary superpower along the way.
Brands explained that the Yemeni operations reduced traffic in the Red Sea by more than half, bankrupted the port of Eilat, and after nearly a year, Yemen remains less deterred and more audacious.
Brands added, “This saga combines dynamics old and new. The Bab Al-Mandeb has long been a focal point of conflict. This Strait is surrounded by instability in the southern Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa.”
That situation has invited conflict and foreign intervention for decades, but the Houthis’ campaign also reveals more recent global troubles.
Brands pointed out the model that Yemen has formed in changing the means and methods of war, saying: “The Red Sea crisis continues to show how seemingly minor actors can use relatively cheap capabilities to expand their destructive influence.”
Brands also stated that what is happening in the Red Sea reflects the underlying fatigue of a US military that lacks enough cruise missiles, laser-guided bombs, strike aircraft, and warships to continue the campaign more aggressively without compromising its readiness for conflicts elsewhere.
The writer claimed that the Houthis have turned “freedom of the seas in a crucial area and paid a very modest price,” but he is wrong here by neglecting to deny all international conventions and human rights regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza with Western support without accountability.
Regarding the future of the battle in 2025 if the aggression against Gaza does not stop, the writer said, “Whoever becomes president in 2025 will have to face the fact that America is losing the struggle for the Red Sea, with all the malignant global consequences that may ensue.”
Brands is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, the co-author of “Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China,” and a member of the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He is a senior adviser to Macro Advisory Partners.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
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