The author treats Houthi disruption of Bab el-Mandeb—ships rerouting via the Cape, higher freight, hits on energy sites—as a Global South shock, including for Pakistan, that UNSC resolutions 2216, 2624, and 2722 have not stopped.

Yemen’s civilian collapse is called the conflict’s engine; military containment alone is said to fail politically. Pakistan is described as balancing a porous Iran border against Saudi remittances, defence ties, and public attachment to the holy cities.

The recommended posture is dual-track: defend navigation under international law and keep Makkah-pact flexibility, while pushing a Yemeni-led political process, humanitarian access, and open channels with Tehran rather than a missile cycle.

The global economy runs on geography, and right now, some of its tightest bottlenecks are under severe pressure. When container ships and oil tankers are forced to bypass the Bab-al-Mandeb, turning away from the Red Sea to embark on the thousands of miles around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, the friction is felt far away. Freight rates spike and supply chains stutter. When an armed non-state group can unilaterally alter the flow of commerce through a vital international artery, the shockwaves do not stop at the ports of Europe or Suez; they cascade down to import-dependent economies across the Global South, hitting the docks of........

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