Houthis Capture Bab el-Mandeb, Trigger First City-Wide Missile Alert in Riyadh

Non-state forces seizing a chokepoint echoes the 1956 Suez Crisis—when Egypt nationalised, then briefly closed, the canal— and the 1984 ‘Tanker War’, when Iranian mines menaced Gulf shipping; each time, energy prices spiked and outside navies were drawn in. The 2026 Bab el-Mandeb takeover fits a century-long trend of asymmetric actors using cheap drones and missiles to offset conventional inferiority (recall the 2019 Abqaiq strikes) while exploiting the world’s reliance on just-in-time sea lanes. If a militia can hold both Bab el-Mandeb and influence Hormuz, the post-1945 assumption that great-power navies guarantee free navigation unravels—potentially rearranging supply chains, insurance markets and regional alliances for decades. Whether this moment proves a blip or a hinge in maritime history will depend on how quickly major powers can restore safe passage—or adapt to a world where critical arteries are perpetually contested.