Since the Hamas attack, 7 of October 2023, instability in the Red Sea region has occurred. Due to this, the United States, along with other western countries has made a military intervention to targets in Yemen. But the question remains, how has it been possible for the US to carry out a military attack? This paper is aiming to study how the US has made this intervention possible by analyzing the securitization of the threat image from the Red Sea region. The study is going to analyze the ATA (Annual threat Assessment) material from the years 2006-2024, the report shows next year's US threat image. By the Securitization Theory the study is aiming to see how the threat image has been securitized. Combined with a discourse analysis as a method the study will investigate how the Red Sea region is expressed in the reports. This material, theory and method have not been studied before and therefore filled a gap in the previous research field.  The purpose is to contribute to a wider picture of the Securitization theory in the international arena. The analysis shows that ATA reports contain clear signs of securitization. The results show that the reports contained loaded words, an authority that was targeting an audience and macro securitization had occurred by mentioning the conflict in the Red Sea region as a proxy war. Due to these results one could draw the conclusion that Securitization had occurred in the report and therefore made possible for the military invasion.

This master's thesis analyses the different narratives constructed by three actors, towards the war in Yemen. The thesis will draw on the constructivist theory to answer the question: how do different actors construct the war in Yemen and the humanitarian crisis in their discourses and narratives? To answer this question, the theoretical part defines different concepts, such as identity, norms, national interest, strategic narrative and discourse. It presents the constructivist understanding of identity as a social construction, shaped by collective components of knowledge, symbols, language and norms. The empirical part attempts to identify the narratives constructed by the Houthis, Saudi Arabia and the EU towards the war in Yemen, which provoked a Saudi-led military intervention when the Houthis seized the capital and declared the establishment of a new government in March 2015. The Houthis consider the intervention as an aggression to Yemen and as the main cause of suffering of the Yemeni people. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia presents the crisis as Iran's attempt to control the country and spread its influence throughout the region. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia argues that it intervened only as a response to the demands of the internationally recognized government under president Hadi. Finally, the EU...

Uninhabited Aircraft Systems (UAS), as a relatively novel technology, was always seen as a tool available and utilized only by rich and developed states. But thanks to globalizations and the fast proliferation of commercially available drones, this platform has already been used by smaller states and also non-state groups, giving them possibilities never seen before. Yet, there is little research on how and why these new actors use UAS to claim their cause. The research question to guide this thesis is how and why do non-state armed groups differ from states when using Uninhabited Aircraft Systems in their military operations? The thesis uses a demand- and supply-side theory, adapted for the proliferation of drones to help answer that question. This theory is tested in a multiple case study involving the United States as a state and the Houthis as a non-state group during the Yemeni crisis, from 2011 to 2022. Through a structured, focused comparison between the cases, indicators from the demand- and supply-side models were used to understand the differences in drone use between different actors. The main findings are that states and non-state armed groups differ in their use of UAS mainly because they have different boundaries (legal and technological), but also for the symbol and status that this platform carries. Finally, it was seen that the theory is not only able to clarify the trends on proliferation, but also the why actors use UAS, with few remarks, but with a need to test it further.

Yemen is amid in three threats at the moment, during a civil war with a pandemic hitting them during a humanitarian crisis. The aim of this work was to understand how has the civil war in Yemen shaped and impacted their humanitarian crisis and COVID-19 response. A literature review was used in this study which helped to analyze the work. As a theoretical framework, it was used Michael E. Brown’s concept of Causes and dimensions of internal actors and Mary Kaldor’s concept of New Wars, which helped to outline and analyze the elements of this conflict and what effects internal and external Actors have in the conflict.   Mason and Rychard´s conflict mapping tools were used as a method. Also, the inter-agency framework helped to analyze the structural causes and key actors in the conflict. These all helped answer the research question, how has the civil war in Yemen affected their humanitarian crisis and COVID-19 response?  One of the important points that this conflict in Yemen tells us is the importance of local humanitarian workers when the conflict actors deny access to the areas. Without them, the work of international aid workers would be almost impossible, as the war continued around. The two humanitarian actors benefit from each other and this brings joint benefit to the Yemeni civilians. The main findings are as the war prolongs for a long time and externals actors intervene in it, followed by a humanitarian crisis affecting innocent civilians. Such a country will then be vulnerable to various pandemics. This has happened in the conflict in Yemen, as the situation is terrible and the COVID-19 pandemic disaster is coming to light there. One can state as a conclusion of the study that further research on the effect of COVID-19 could be helpful for the future to understand the real catastrophic effects this absurd conflict has brought.