Houthi movement

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• „2023 was a very successful year for FUCHS, with new record highs for sales revenues, EBIT and free cash flow.
• With the construction of a new plant in Vietnam, the path is set for expansion in another Asian growth market.
• A total of up to 8 million shares with a total price of up to EUR 280 million are to be acquired.
• In all three cases, we were able to excel due to the combination of global support, technological excellence and a motivated on-site FUCHS team.

• As their attacks have intensified, the group’s slogan (or sarkha, meaning “scream”) has also gained notoriety.
• Banners bearing the sarkha dot the streets in areas of Yemen under Houthi control and are brandished by supporters at their rallies.
• Read more:
  Why US strikes will only embolden the Houthis, not stop their attacks on ships in the Red Sea

Terror groups as a tool of the state

• Some experts argue this may create more “terrorists” than it kills.
• However, there are other layers to these slogans that are less intuitively understood by a Western audience.
• For many in the region, groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State function, in part, as “tools” that Western-backed authoritarian leaders use to maintain their power.

releasedal-Qaeda prisoners so they could regroup
facilitated al-Qaeda attacks against local and foreign targets
misdirected US strikes to kill political opponents rather than al-Qaeda leaders.

• As a result, many Yemenis wouldn’t view al-Qaeda or Islamic State as being completely separate from those in charge of the country.
• In the West, these groups are framed as rebels seeking to overturn the state.
• But across the region, many believe these relationships defy simple categories like “state versus insurgent” or “friend versus enemy” because terror groups can be both at once.

Why the West’s policies are backfiring

• When I asked residents about the this, they appeared to see the statement as a banal declaration of fact.
• (Like the banners bearing the sarkha, the murals used a red barbed-wire font for the word “America”.)
• Of course, the violence the Houthis use to sustain their own power is an irony that should not be lost.
• Even so, their messaging taps into widespread views about the drivers of regional violence that some Western observers have long dismissed.

Sarah G. Phillips receives funding from the Australian Research Council (FT200100539). She is a Non-Resident Fellow with the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies (Yemen).

• Controlling the global ocean enables the projection of military power all over the world, as well as securing the free flow of goods at sea.
• The prosperity and security of trading nations strongly depend on the stability of the global maritime supply chain and thus on freedom of navigation.
• Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea have incurred substantial costs for the global economy.
• Together with Kyiv’s efficient use of missiles and drones against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, it limited Russia’s ability to disrupt Ukraine’s maritime trade.

Power projection

• Western dominance has always relied on its ability to project military power across the globe via the sea.
• This raises questions about the west’s ability to project power and forces into contested theatres such as the Taiwan Strait because they’d be vulnerable to attack from the Chinese mainland.
• In the Indo-Pacific, China has been developing capabilities to counter US projection forces.

Civilian seapower

• This explains China’s balanced stance on the Red Sea crisis and reports that Beijing has been pressuring Iran to bring the Houthis under control.
• But at the same time, China is using its commercial and financial assets to peacefully, though proactively, extend its maritime power.
• Elsewhere, in the South China Sea, Beijing has mastered the art of blurring the boundaries between civilian, military and legal means and objectives – this is defined as “grey zone” tactics.

For whosoever command the sea…

• Sir Walter Raleigh’s old dictum: “For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself” has until recently characterised the western, liberal world order.
• Seapower proceeds from a combination of naval and commercial maritime assets and isn’t limited to the west.
• This might open the doors for a new, illiberal world order, most likely one that is dominated by China.

Basil Germond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.