Jordan R Reimer

The authors analyze the prospect that Iran will further invest in Yemen's Houthis and develop them into an enduring proxy group. The authors examine the Houthi movement's history, the Houthis' current relations with Iran, Iran's history of proxy development, and the trajectory of the Houthi-Iran relationship, and then pose scenarios for the future. The report should be of interest to a wide audience in the foreign policy and defense community.

From 2001 to 2021, despite deteriorating conditions and no apparent hope of military victory, the United States pursued an unchanging policy objective in Afghanistan: to prevent a terrorist group from using the country as a haven in which to plan or launch an attack on the United States. The authors examined the reasons behind this policy inertia through interviews with the senior leaders involved in policy deliberations between 2001 and 2016.