The Red Sea Arena is a region defined by contest and disorder. It’s at risk of becoming a shatter zone of intersecting fracture lines. The incipient peace and security order on the African shore has collapsed; none has been built on the Arabian Peninsula shore. There is not even an agreed agenda for emergency food security.
This paper explains the concept of the ‘Red Sea Arena’. It examines how the arena is relevant to the contest between BRICS-RAMP and the Pax Americana, using in particular the frame of war economies and economic warfare. It also examines the rivalries and conflicts among BRICS-RAMP countries, and the emaciated, illiberal multilateralism that emerges. It concludes with the dire implications for the poorer countries of the Red Sea Arena.
