The Red Sea is emerging as a key theater of contention in the emerging duel between the United States and China. Both countries have military outposts in the tiny country of Djibouti and expanding geopolitical interests in one of the world’s most volatile regions.
Brookings Institution Non-resident Fellow Zach Vertin joins Eric & Cobus this week to discuss his recently published paper on the “Great power rivalry in the Red Sea” and how he thinks U.S. policymakers should respond to the burgeoning political and military challenge from China.
Show Notes:
- The Brookings Institution: Great Power Rivalry in the Red Sea: China’s Experiment in Djibouti and Implications for the United States by Zach Vertin
- United States Institute of Peace: China’s Impact on Conflict Dynamics in the Red Sea Arena by USIP China-Red Sea Arena Senior Study Group
- National Defense University: The PLA Beyond Asia: China’s Growing Military Presence in the Red Sea Region by Joel Wuthnow
Zach Vertin is a nonresident fellow in the Brookings Foreign Policy program and was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. He specializes in the Gulf, the Horn of Africa, and the changing geopolitics of the Red Sea. He is also a lecturer of public and international affairs at Princeton University. From 2013-16, he served in the Obama administration as director of policy for the U.S. special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, which spearheaded policymaking on behalf of the State Department and the White House. Vertin previously spent six years at the International Crisis Group, where he served as senior analyst for the Horn of Africa, and as advisor on peace operations and multilateral affairs in the U.N. Security Council.
