In 2024, Allison Minor wrote, “Solving the Houthi Threat to Freedom of Navigation,” where she argued the international response to Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea has so far been inadequate and proposed a U.N.-led solution. Two years later, with global attention once again focused on maritime shipping activity, we asked Allison to review her arguments. Image: Petty Officer 1st Class Jonathan Word via DVIDSWhen you wrote about the Houthi threat in 2024, the activities in the Red Sea commanded high global attention. Two years on, that attention has largely shifted to the Strait of Hormuz. What has been happening with the Houthis in the interim, and where does the threat currently stand?U.S.-Israeli strikes on the Houthis over the course of 2024 and 2025 hurt the Houthis militarily and economically but failed to eliminate their attack capabilities. It appears the Houthis are now focused on regrouping and rebuilding their arsenal. The Houthis have not attacked commercial ships since 2025, but they continue to wield the threat of attacks against shipping as a tool, including during the recent Iran war. Commercial actors remain wary of this volatile environment, so Red Sea shipping has still not rebounded. There has been much speculation about why the Houthis did not launch attacks in the Red Sea or on Gulf states as other Iranian-backed groups did during the war. I believe this is in part because the Houthis remain hopeful about what they can secure from backchannel talks with the Saudis and understand such attacks would have disrupted that détente.Meanwhile, inside Yemen, the war remains largely frozen. The U.S. designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, combined with the absence of U.S. diplomatic leadership on Yemen, is further constraining prospects for a U.N.-led peace process. The eruption of a public rift between
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