Far from traditional military bases, which serve to contain neighboring powers or deter external attacks, the UAE’s network of informal facilities extends across Africa and the Red Sea region.

Alongside the Sudanese war, Houthi and Hamas aerial attacks against Israel threaten to upend Saudi Arabia’s geostrategic goals along its western coast.

Since 2011, the Arab world has undergone massive upheavals—geopolitical shifts, climate shocks, mounting economic pressures, and authoritarian restructuring, to name a few. Dynamic responses from governments and citizens are laying the shape of the next decade.

The composition of the newly appointed Presidential Council emphasizes the role of informal leaders in Yemen’s institutions, thus pushing the country a step beyond hybridity.

Maritime security plays a key role in the UAE’s recalibration of its foreign policy, particularly in the Bab al-Mandab region. The straits diplomacy embodies the transfer of Emirati policy from spreading power to protecting influence.

Under the presidency of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, civil-military relations remain imbalanced: but paradoxically, the overwhelming role of the military, also as economic player, combines with the subtle narrowing of the military as cohesive entity.

Military training cooperation has become a distinctive feature of the UAE’s foreign policy and a major tool for expanding geopolitical leverage.

The shifting relationships between armies and civil society are revealing new balances within defense structures.

In Yemen, many new and traditional security providers operate and compete at the local level. Changes in security governance result in quick political fragmentation and reordering of security relations.

In the last decade, Saudi Arabia’s approach to the porous frontier with Yemen has gradually shifted from patronage for and cooperation with local tribes to incremental militarization.