The International Crisis Group posted on 14 December 2023 a 53-minute podcast titled "No More Rules? Discussing the Crisis in Regional Diplomacy" with Alexander Rondos, senior advisor at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Kholood Khair, founding director of a Sudan-focused think tank, and Abdul Mohammed, who has held senior positions with the UN and African Union.
The conversation focused on the conflict in Sudan and the impact of relations on both sides of the Red Sea. Sudan in particular has changed the situation in the Horn of Africa. There is now a crisis of legitimacy of the state. Gulf States are looking for proxies in the Horn and there seems to be a belief that the old rules no longer apply, and the new rules are not yet well understood.
Only a combined effort by outside parties working together can solve or ameliorate a challenge as difficult to solve as the conflict in Sudan. In the meantime, attacks on commercial shipping through the Red Sea are turning the Horn of Africa crises into a global crisis.
