The New Red Sea Wars
Crisis Group
C
Crisis Group
Original Source
Middle Eastern and Horn of Africa conflicts have become inextricably linked, transforming the Red Sea region from two separate strategic arenas into a unified and perilous conflict zone. Regional and international power competition is deepening this dangerous entanglement, portending greater instability across both regions.
The New Red Sea Wars | International Crisis Group
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**Op-Ed** / Africa 06 October 2026 **1 minutes**
The New Red Sea Wars
Originally published in Foreign Affairs
*Conflicts in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa Have Become Inseparable*
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Alan Boswell
Project Director, Horn of Africa
Related Tags
* Horn of Africa
* Gulf and Arabian Peninsula
On June 3, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the U.S. Congress that the fighting that had raged for three years in Sudan was now a “proxy war” and blamed Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for frustrating American efforts to bring the conflict to an end. Rubio was saying out loud what many observers already knew: what started as a domestic power struggle has morphed into a wider regional war, drawing in outside powers and spilling across Sudan’s borders.
The spread of the conflict in Sudan is part of a larger geopolitical transformation. For much of the past century, policymakers have treated the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as separate strategic regions divided by the Red Sea. That distinction is now evaporating. Wars on one side of the sea increasingly alter the military calculations on the other. This entanglement is only deepening in the wake of the United States’ and Israel’s decision in
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eEARTH
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From Early Warning to Early Action
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Gender & Conflict
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Global Order and Peacemaking
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Multilateral Diplomacy
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* Great Lakes
* Horn of Africa
* Sahel
* West Africa
* Countries
* Angola
* Burkina Faso
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Côte d’Ivoire
* Democratic Republic of Congo
* Eritrea
* Ethiopia
* Guinea
* Guinea-Bissau
* Kenya
* Liberia
* Madagascar
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* Mozambique
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* Nigeria
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+ United Arab Emirates
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+ Featured
The U.S. and UN Will Need More Patience to Resolve Western Sahara Conflict
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Angola Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Côte d’Ivoire Democratic Republic of Congo Eritrea Ethiopia Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Liberia Madagascar Mali Mozambique Niger Nigeria Republic of Congo Rwanda Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Uganda Zimbabwe
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Algeria Bahrain Egypt Iran Iraq Israel/Palestine Jordan Lebanon Libya Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria Tunisia United Arab Emirates Western Sahara Yemen
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The U.S. and UN Will Need More Patience to Resolve Western Sahara Conflict
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**Op-Ed** / Africa 06 October 2026 **1 minutes**
The New Red Sea Wars
Originally published in Foreign Affairs
*Conflicts in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa Have Become Inseparable*
* Share
+ BlueSky
* Save
Alan Boswell
Project Director, Horn of Africa
Related Tags
* Horn of Africa
* Gulf and Arabian Peninsula
On June 3, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the U.S. Congress that the fighting that had raged for three years in Sudan was now a “proxy war” and blamed Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for frustrating American efforts to bring the conflict to an end. Rubio was saying out loud what many observers already knew: what started as a domestic power struggle has morphed into a wider regional war, drawing in outside powers and spilling across Sudan’s borders.
The spread of the conflict in Sudan is part of a larger geopolitical transformation. For much of the past century, policymakers have treated the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as separate strategic regions divided by the Red Sea. That distinction is now evaporating. Wars on one side of the sea increasingly alter the military calculations on the other. This entanglement is only deepening in the wake of the United States’ and Israel’s decision in
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Tags:#القرن الأفريقي#البحر الأحمر#السودان#شبه الجزيرة العربية#الصراعات الإقليمية#الشرق الأوسط
Source: Crisis Group
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