Navigating the Red Sea Crisis: International Law, Conflict Management and Maritime Security

The event "Navigating the Red Sea Crisis: International Law, Conflict Management and Maritime Security" is scheduled for Tuesday, April 9, at 4:30 p.m. in the Aula Magna Storica at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. Speakers include Andrea de Guttry, professor of International Law at Scuola Sant'Anna, Silvia Colombo, NATO Defense College, and Andrea Pappalardo, Iustopia law firm. Alessandro Mario Amoroso, postdoc researcher at the Sant'Anna School, moderates the discussion.

In October 2023, the Iranian-backed Houthi movement – Ansar Allah, which controls large swaths of the territory of Yemen, began attacking both naval ships and merchant vessels transiting the Bab al-Mandab strait, in retaliation for the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. To end the threat to maritime trade and freedom of navigation, the US and UK decided in January 2024 to launch strikes on Houthi targets, with the aim of degrading their military capacity. Meanwhile, the EU approved Operation Aspides, tasked with protecting civilian ships in the Red Sea without carrying out attacks on Yemeni territory. These events once again demonstrate the strategic role of maritime chokepoints and the risks associated with military escalation in the region.

Through the contributions of three distinguished experts, this seminar will examine the Red Sea crisis from three different perspectives: the international law of the use of force; geostrategy and competition for chokepoints; the trade and security consequences of a maritime crisis.

Remote access to participate is possible through this link.