“The recent history of the Red Sea reads like a macabre thriller, from industrial-scale hostage-taking by pirates to tit-for-tat naval attacks between Israel and Iran in international waters to unchecked drug and arms smuggling,” Nicholas W. Stephenson Smith wrote in 2021, two and a half years before the current Red Sea crisis.
The surge of Houthi militant attacks on container ships that has rattled global trade is only the latest chapter of the Red Sea’s recent troubles. This edition of Flash Points examines the crisis and its geopolitical implications, but also its historic roots and the legacy of colonialism in the region.—Chloe Hadavas
The Panama-flagged MV Ever Given container ship sails along Egypt’s Suez Canal near the canal’s central city of Ismailia on July 7, 2021. Mahmoud Khaled/AFP via Getty Images
How the Red Sea Became a Trap
From piracy to the Ever Given, colonialism left hard scars, Nicholas W. Stephenson Smith writes.
An aerial view shows stranded ships waiting to cross the Suez Canal at its southern entrance near the Red Sea port city of Suez, Egypt, on March 27, 2021. Mahmoud Khaled/AFP via Getty Images
The Red Sea Crisis Proves China Was Ahead of the Curve
The Belt and Road Initiative wasn’t a sinister plot. It was a blueprint for what every nation needs in an age of uncertainty and disruption, Parag Khanna writes.
A British Navy Sea King helicopter lifts off from the back of a British warship on Dec. 6, 1987, as a British military convoy of 4 warships moves south toward the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq “Tanker War.” Norbert Schiller/AFP via Getty Images)
In the Red Sea, the Royal Navy Is Back
Britannia once ruled the waves. As the Houthis threaten global shipping, U.K. naval power is reprising its old role, FP’s Elisabeth Braw writes.
An aerial view shows the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a sea route connecting the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, on Oct. 22, 2022.Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2021
The Houthis’ Next Target May Be Underwater
Cutting or damaging subsea cables could disrupt data and financial communications between Europe and Asia, FP’s Keith Johnson writes.
A picture taken during an organized tour by Yemen’s Houthi rebels shows the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, seized by Houthi fighters two days earlier, docked in a port on the Red Sea near the Yemeni province of Hodeida on Nov. 22, 2023.AFP via Getty Images
Why Egypt Has the Most to Lose From Houthi Strikes on Merchant Ships
As FP’s Cameron Abadi and Adam Tooze discuss, the attacks harm global trade, but the regional impact might be worse.