The PRC now routinely operates within a spectrum of Gray Zone activities that it executes in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.  The Rand Corporation recently published a report titled: “Understanding and Countering China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations”.  This report is focused on China’s campaign of coercive activities that lie in the “operational space between peace and war”.  More and more, we are seeing China exert control in the region while largely avoiding a conventional response from the international community.  This is because China has mastered the art of employing gray zone operations which skirt the boundaries of kinetic actions.

The Houthis are a shia muslim Extremist Organization  originating from Northern Yemen.  They have been involved in multiple conflicts within Yemen for several decades.  The Houthi movement began in the 1990s as a revivalist movement aimed at protecting Zaidi religious and cultural identities.  The Houthis advocate for greater autonomy for Yemen's Zaidi-populated regions and oppose what they see as foreign interference in Yemen's affairs.  They have positioned themselves against Israel, the US and Western democracies in general and more recently Saudi Arabia.

The Western hemisphere’s premier political – military alliance; NATO.  The 32-member political-military alliance is committed to the principle that an attack against one of its members is considered an attack against all – this is the underlying principle of COLLECTIVE DEFENSE and enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.