When Borders Blur: Houthi Ascendancy in a Globalised World

In today’s world, it is easy to mistake our interconnected reality as the de facto human existence. Yet recent technological developments shape our geopolitical landscape in ways unimaginable to the previous generation. In this article, globalising forces are weighed against Yemenite involvement in an altogether un-Yemenite affair.

Growing up, I was a terrible sleeper.

Drafting in experts from across the board, I consulted “sleep science” features amongst my brother’s old copies of the British Medical Journal, and snipped out articles written by alleged sleep experts in the newspaper. I’ve been implementing sleep strategies from stage hypnotist Paul McKenna for close to 15 years, and used a paperback by East-West guru Nerina Ramlakhan as my guidebook every other week whilst studying at university.

Something did the job, and my sleep improved.

Regrettably, these British authors are ill-equipped to advise on Middle-East insomnia. Nobody had a prescription for Houthi ballistic rockets. Neither Paul McKenna’s tapping exercises, nor Ramlakhan’s Feng Shiu would facilitate a restful night when Houthi hypersonic missiles rained overhead.

An angry young Gazan might interject here, and decry that few in Gaza sleep soundly either, not since October 7th. After all, Israel’s barrage on its neighbour has been far more intense.

 I would question him or her to consider why that might be the case, which would invite ten hours of competitive suffering and You’re-to-blame-No-You’re-to-blame before both of us stormed out, the former likely wishing me dead ever more so.

But at least the Gazan had grounds to argue. Israeli reprisals to the October 7th savagery have been fierce.

But why should a Houthi interfere? 

Yemen sits 2,000 kilometers from Tel Aviv. That is approximately the distance from London to Tripoli. 

No border is shared, no Yemenite interests are at stake.

Yet the Houthis fire hundreds of missiles at Israeli civilians. 

What for? Welcome to the global polity.

The Houthi Premise

A few generations ago, nations fought almost all of their conflicts at close proximity. 

Improvements in technology and transport gradually made dispatches to distant battlefields more feasible, though politicians sanctioning war in Vietnam or the Falklands would not forget the ire they drew amongst citizens at home.

By contrast, Houthi involvement in Israel’s war with Gaza is a glittering badge of honour in the eyes of its populace. 

Whilst pan-Arabism is nothing new (Yemen refused to grant ElAl permission to even fly over its airspace in the 1990s) , this spate of adventure is a first for its sheer absurdity. 

To be clear, Israel poses no danger to Houthi rebels. The I.D.F has not conducted operations in Yemen for 60 years.

And indeed, the Houthi administration has far more pressing socio-economic priorities at home than launching multi-million dollar projectiles in a bid to help liberate Palestine.

However, in a world of 24/7 media, the stream of Israeli airstrikes and ‘carnage in Gaza’ proved enough to distract a population from its extreme poverty. Keenly aware of the thousands-strong crowds that gather across Yemenite cities in support of action against Israel, Houthis develop their missile arsenal as a cornerstone for asserting domestic legitimacy.

But there is more to the picture than political expediency. 

Beneath surface-level expressions of solidarity with Palestinians, Houthi leaders seethe with visceral antisemitic hatred. Their political slogan—”Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews”—speaks volumes about their true motivations for missile attacks, even without the millions of dollars in military aid they receive from Iran.

Allusion to the U.S. is also not incidental. Hashem al-Dhiqa, a Houthi intellectual, outlined their political agenda as: “rebuild Yemen on the foundations of true Islam and Arab identity as an alternative to imported American culture”.

Writing twenty years before the Houthis, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks addressed a  ‘clash of civilisations ushered in by our “global age”. On the one hand exists the “McWorld, a largely American culture conveyed by multinational corporations, branded goods and media stars”, and facing up to it is a “resurgent tribalism that reasserts a combination of religious and ethnic identities…when the two meet and collide, as they did on September 11 (2001), the world trembles”.

Back then, Sacks spoke about globalisation shifting the balance of power from nation states to ‘super-empowered individuals’, that could utilize “satellite phones’’ and “encrypted emails” to “mobilise globally” a sea of like-minded followers.

Today, those technologies are far more sophisticated, and global interdependence is greater than ever before.

Since Rabbi Sacks published his ideas in 2002, global shipping through the Red Sea has increased at a staggering rate. It is little surprise then that policy advisor Michael Knights labelled the Houthis a “knife held against one of the world’s most important trade arteries” whilst addressing the United Nations Security Council in January 2025. Despite their small numbers and localised operations, Houthi aggravation has reverberated across international shipping channels.

Usage of the Suez Canal has halved since their attacks began. Ships and persons from most of the countries on the globe have been affected, whether directly engaged aboard a targeted/ hijacked ship, or financially stricken by Houthi cruise-missiles and long-range drones. At least 29 global shipping companies now sail around the entire African continent, as they were forced to do before the Suez Canal opened…in 1869. 

Globalisation has enabled the Houthis to masquerade as a major regional player, exerting an influence once restricted to Great Powers.

Does our interconnected world have the answers?

Do we possess the means to rein in a ragtag group of jihadi pirates? Do the necessary structures exist to check their influence? Given our deeply interconnected global culture, one might assume that coordinated action should be easier than ever. Yuval Noah Harari argues in 21 lessons for the 21st century that although “political, ethnic, cultural and economic divisions endure”, the modern age has fostered a “fundamental unity”. Thomas Friedman suggested that “No two countries that both had McDonald’s have fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s”.

Yet, placing our hopes in these structures would be misplaced. The UN has proven powerless in curbing Houthi aggression. Whilst officials criticised snap raids, ‘forcible disappearances’, and arbitrary hostage-taking of seafarers, they offered little concrete response. For example, when the Houthis released 25 individuals captured aboard a Japanese vehicle carrier in November 2023, the UN’s special envoy to Yemen offered little more than platitudes, calling the release a “positive step in the right direction.”.

At grassroots level, global integration and prosperity has not enabled populations to understand distant conflicts better either. As Rabbi Sacks observed, “images of suffering in far-off lands” are projected into our “immediate experience…simultaneously activating and frustrating our moral sense”. To my mind, this explains an otherwise bizarre reality. Not only has there not been a single protest against the Houthis in London, they have actually received a demonstrable level of support. Last year, crowds marched to Parliament Square chanting “Yemen, Yemen do us proud, turn another ship around”. It appears that the relentless media coverage of Palestinian suffering has not only swayed the sentiments of westerners, but empowered radical narratives that endorse a group guilty of heinous terror and grave human rights violations. 

Conclusion

So, where do the answers lie? Clearly, there is a need to strengthen civil society at home. If we hope to comprehend global conflicts, we must first cultivate a deeper understanding of our own local issues, and thereby greater nuance in interpreting global events . Just as British sleep professionals cannot prescribe solutions in the Middle East, the dream of a globalised order offering easy solutions to long-distance conflicts remains naive.

Yet whilst our globalised environment breeds unprecedented threat and confusion, there is also cause for optimism. Technology offers hope for increased education and greater media literacy. Combined with a commitment to responsible action by nation-states, we may yet develop the capacity to address these challenges. But it will require populations to move beyond media soundbites and officials to offer more than platitudes—it will demand a concerted effort to cut through the noise and confront issues like the Houthis with both moral clarity and strategic resolve.

Sources:

1. https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2024/09/poverty-in-yemen-tracing-the-path-to-economic-downturn?lang=en
2. https://dayan.org/content/who-are-houthis-ansar-allahs-islamic-propaganda-yemen-and-beyond
3. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference, p.61
4. Ibid. p.198
5.  Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
6. Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1999
7. https://apnews.com/article/yemen-houthi-rebels-galaxy-leader-crew-3638ab8e31c9c97b2ef5f9079dfbb6c0#
8.  Sacks, Ibid. p.30
9. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/13/pro-palestinian-demonstrator-blames-us-israel-hamas-attack/
10. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/13/pro-palestinian-demonstrator-blames-us-israel-hamas-attack/