In Geopolitics Today - Friday, August 6th
Yemen Unable to Assert Sovereignty Over Perim, Socotra Islands and the US Determined to Dominate Semiconductor Supply Chains
Yemen Unable to Assert Sovereignty Over Perim, Socotra Islands
The island of Perim lies in a strategic position in the Strait of Mandeb at the south entrance of the Red Sea, off the south-west coast of Yemen. The Yemeni islands which sit in the middle of one of the busiest shipping routes in the world have a strategic value which allows for the monitoring of vessels. Their value was certainly recognised by the Saudi-led coalition forces, which rapidly took the islands at the onset of their war in Yemen.
In May this year, the Saudi-led coalition admitted that they were behind in their work on the construction of a runway on Perim Island — territory which is still considered sovereign Yemeni land. The Yemeni Foreign Minister, Ahmed bin Mubarak, has stressed that there is “no agreement with anyone on the establishment of a military base on Yemeni soil.”
The UAE, as part of the Saudi-led coalition, has also reportedly been pursuing joint Israeli-Emirati projects on the island of Socotra, a territorial outpost of Yemen located 100 kilometres off the Horn of Africa. The UAE’s active role has brought the country a military foothold via the Southern Transitional Council (STS) – which took control of Socotra in 2020.
Emirati gains have meant losses for Yemen. Worse still, if the Yemeni authorities are unable to garner international support against the occupying powers or pool together enough resources to retake the islands themselves, the Saudi-led coalition could choose to play for time and maintain the status quo, a highly unfavourable position for Yemen to be in.
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The US Determined to Dominate Semiconductor Supply Chains
While the United States is a leader in the manufacture of advanced electronic devices, its dominance of the industry relies on what are known as fabless chip firms. Fabless chip makers are producers of semiconductors which design and sell their hardware and semiconductor chips but do not actually manufacture the necessary silicon wafers.
So when supply chains are disrupted, as has occurred as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the emergent chip shortage has revealed weaknesses in US chip manufacturing capacities. The Biden administration has recognised this reality in a recent assessment conducted by the White House which looks at global semiconductor supply chains. Their report acknowledges that while the United States still leads in chip systems and designs, the country lacks the foundries to boost some elements of the supply chains to a satisfactory scale if the US wants to avoid future chip shortages.
Chinese companies which rely on semiconductors have been faced with US threats to block access to these critical components. The blacklisting of Huawei by the US has opened the South Korean semiconductor materials market for US firms, and this market was only marginally second to Taiwan in 2018 when it comes to the global share of the production of silicon wafers. South Korea and Taiwan make up two of the largest players in the global superconductor and chip markets, and their continued cooperation with the United States will be crucial to fulfil the US goal of future dominance every level of the semiconductor supply chain.
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