Geopolitics of Ports and Islands: the case of Yemen Speaker: Dr Khaled Fattah (United Nations) Chair: Dr Hsinyen Lai

The Red Sea crisis has fundamentally changed the landscape of maritime security in the Middle East and Horn of Africa. In addition to disrupting one of the most important international shipping corridors, the crisis brought to the surface the rising role of regional geopolitical competition, and the transformation of maritime security into a bargaining chip. Drawing on field experiences and borrowing tools from geopolitical analysis, this lecture puts spotlight on four Yemeni ports and islands and highlights how the dynamic interaction between the flow of history , the legacy of local culture and the concrete reality of geography shapes the duration and outcomes of conflicts ”

Dr. Khaled Fattah holds a PhD in international relations from the University of St Andrews. In addition to serving for many years as a political advisor for the Unted Nations in Yemen, and a consultant for several international organisations, including the EU , IOM , UNDP, DFID and GIZ, Dr. Fattah was a guest lecturer at Lund University, and a non-resident scholar at Carnegie Middle East Centre.