Michael Knights is the Jill and Jay Bernstein Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and cofounder of the Militia Spotlight platform, which offers in-depth analysis of developments related to Iran-backed militias.
Articles & Testimony
If the West could go back in time and prevent Hezbollah from becoming a powerhouse, they would do so in a heartbeat, so they should not miss a similar opportunity with the Houthis.
For all the horror of the Yemen war, U.S. policymakers and legislators should not lose sight of the strategic outcome it was intended to avert—the establishment of an Iranian-supplied “southern Hezbollah” on the Arabian Peninsula, flanking the Suez Canal and posing a new missile threat to Saudi Arabia and Israel. I visited the country’s battlefronts on three research visits this year and interviewed dozens of Yemeni and Gulf coalition officers, intelligence officials, leaders and civilians on what they have learned about the Houthis as an adversary. The research, published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, paints a graphic picture of a movement that is more ambitious and more hostile to U.S. interests than is widely understood…
