Jim Pomeroy: Decisiveness needed against the Houthis
In 1890, American naval officer and historian Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote one of the most influential books on military strategy ever published. Right next to Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Carl von Clausewitz’s On War, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History is a seminal work that is required reading for military officers and military historians to this day. The book argues that the most successful empires in history such as Britain, Spain, and France required strong navies to not only seize but also secure their overseas holdings. Of particular importance to Mahan was a navy’s ability to secure lines of trade and commerce, thus ensuring the continued wealth of the realm: “When for any reason sea trade is again found to pay, a large enough shipping interest will reappear to compel the revival of the war fleet.”
Written just prior to the dawn of the dreadnought era of battleships, Mahan’s work certainly could not have foreseen the rise of aircraft carriers, let alone Exocet anti-ship missiles. But the theory still remains true. One of the primary functions of a modern navy is to ensure that a sovereign nation’s merchant mariner fleet is protected in both its territorial waters as well as international waters. Recent events in the Red Sea, however, might have Mahan turning over in his grave.
In 2014, an Iranian backed, Shiite militia group known as Ansar Allah (more commonly referred to as the Houthis) launched a lightning offense from the northern border regions of Yemen southward, rapidly taking control of not only the capital city of Sanaa but a significant chunk of Yemen’s western coastline. A Saudi-backed intervention in Yemen, aimed at restoring President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi’s regime, eventually stalled, leaving the country frozen in a civil war. The Houthis soon thereafter used this opportunity to attack commercial shipping in the international waters of the Red Sea.
This type of piracy increased tenfold following the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. At the behest of Iran, who sought to take the pressure off its other proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis began to regularly and viciously attack Red Sea international shipping with not just Kalashnikov wielding militiamen on skiffs but also with increasingly sophisticated drone and missile attacks. In response, the United States and 20 other nations launched Operation Prosperity Guardian in December 2023. A month later, the UN issued a formal denunciation of the Houthis’ actions in the Red Sea as U.S. and allied warplanes began launching airstrikes against Houthi positions. However, attacks against shipping continued. The Biden administration, caught in a reelection campaign and hampered by a chief executive growing frailer, found it increasingly difficult to put an end to the Houthis claiming that they had seized some crew members of the latter hostage. While condemnations have flown in from all corners of the world, including the United States, at this writing there has not been a military retaliation against the Houthis.
Since 2023, the U.S. and its partners have not acted decisively against this threat. To paraphrase a quote from the late Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, What’s the point of having this superb Navy we’re always talking about if we’re not going to use it? If the reign of Pax Americana means (or perhaps meant) anything, it’s that the U.S. and its partners would use force to ensure global stability when necessary. Perhaps the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have understandably given American policymakers cold feet. But the maxim of Mahan still rings true. The U.S. Navy is a lethal and breathtakingly orchestrated instrument of American global power projection. Its primary duty is to ensure that merchant fleets can traverse international waters without the fear of attack by piracy. The same was true in the Barbary Campaign of 1802 and the famous Maersk Alabama hijacking of 2009 (inspiring the award-winning film Captain Phillips). In 1988, Operation Praying Mantis saw the U.S. Navy deal a brutally crippling blow on the Iranian Navy over the course of one afternoon. By comparison, Prosperity Guardian looks rudderless (pun intended) and indecisive. Two administrations have failed to deal with the Houthi threat in a way that ensures the free flow of commercial shipping without the threat of missiles and drones attacking civilian crews. This is especially true given the fact that 90% of today’s global trade relies on international shipping. It would be wise for the military advisors in the current administration to start brushing up on their Mahan.
Jim Pomeroy, raised in Bucks County and a former congressional aide, works in higher education. He is the author of the forthcoming Alliances & Armor: Communist Diplomacy and Armored Warfare during the War in Vietnam.
