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The Red Sea, one of the world’s most critical gateways for international trade, has emerged as an arena of complex political, economic, and security relations between Middle Eastern countries (MECs) and the Horn of Africa (HoA), as well as a focal point of intense geostrategic competition among global powers. Since 2011, MECs have expanded their investments in HoA’s infrastructure, resources, and agriculture, while deepening trade ties and establishing military bases to secure their interests. This growing presence has sparked tensions, with MECs projecting their rivalries across the Red Sea and often pressuring Horn states to take sides, thereby heightening local enmities. At the same time, migration has also emerged as a defining feature of interactions between the two shores.

The cost of inaction is too high. Mismanaging these relationships risks deepening enmities within and between states, undermining economic growth, and disrupting the global trade routes that rely on Red Sea stability. A lack of mutual understanding between the two regions further perpetuates a zero-sum mindset, where short-term gains for one side come at the expense of long-term regional progress. It also leads to missed opportunities for cooperation. Indeed, despite these challenges, the Red Sea holds immense potential to serve as a platform for enhanced two-way trade, cultural exchange, and people-to-people connections, fostering mutual growth and regional stability.

Against this backdrop, it is thus crucial to transform the Red Sea from an arena of confrontation to a platform for cooperation to both mitigate risks and unlock opportunities. Achieving this transformation requires to build mutual understanding, facilitate dialogue, and align agendas between the two shores. This e-book aims to contribute to this goal, asking a provocative question: Do you see what I see? This question challenges readers to critically examine whether the MECs and the HoA view the opportunities and challenges of the Red Sea in similar ways or if their interests are fundamentally at odds. By prompting reflection on this, the question lays the groundwork for exploring how mutual understanding can be fostered, shared concerns addressed, and cooperative solutions advanced to move beyond zero-sum approaches.

By answering this question, the e-book will identify three key areas:

i) Convergences: areas where MECs and Horn states can align and collaborate effectively;

ii) Fault lines: Strategic areas of deep divergence where their interests are fundamentally opposed;

This approach offers policymakers in the Red Sea arena practical guidance by equipping them with a clear understanding of how to capitalize on low-hanging fruits (convergences), strengthen dialogue to unlock potential and achieve better alignment (mismatches), and implement risk mitigation strategies to prevent escalating conflicts that could overshadow future opportunities (fault lines).

This e-book seeks to create a much-needed space for strategic dialogue, often overlooked in the current debate on this area. Rather than being a mere collection of essays, it adopts a dynamic, dialogic approach that fosters exchange and challenges conventional narratives. This dialogic framework also enables a critical rethinking of the Red Sea not as a one-sided story of Middle Eastern influence over the Horn of Africa, but as a shared space of interaction and mutual influence. By reframing the Red Sea as a bidirectional arena, this e-book highlights how both regions shape—and are shaped by—each other’s actions, ambitions, and constraints. Through this lens, it explores how the MECs and HoA engage with the Red Sea and with one another, offering a nuanced analysis of the interplay between agency and aspirations on both shores.

This e-book, edited by Luigi Narbone, Carlo Palleschi (Luiss Mediterranean Platform), Mehari Taddele Maru (Pan African Agenda Institute) and Dalia Ghanem (Middle East Council on Global Affairs), brings together researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers from both sides of the Red Sea, as well as international voices, to engage in structured conversations on three key themes:

1. People – Addressing migration flows along with broader social and economic transformations, including cultural and religion exchanges, labor markets, and demographic shifts affecting both shores.
2. Economic growth and development – Examining trade and investments in infrastructure, energy, food and water security, and technology as drivers of mutual growth between the HoA and MECs.
3. Peace, security and geopolitics – focusing on key conflict hotspots in the Horn and their impact on broader MEC-HoA dynamics; exploring how MEC’s influence, military projection, and regional rivalries shape security and political dynamics across the Red Sea Arena, and HoA reactions and response strategies; examining the diplomatic engagement and the impact of global geopolitical shifts involving major powers such as the US, China, and Russia; analyzing diplomatic multilateral initiatives, such as the Red Sea Council and bilateral efforts.

Each topic is explored within a dedicated section, divided into chapters, with each chapter featuring contributions from experts. To enable meaningful comparisons within sections, experts will be asked to address some designed questions, tailored to the authors’ expertise. This methodology emphasizes a comparative analysis, where expert insights are structured around common themes, facilitating a systematic exploration of how both regions view and engage in the Red Sea Arena. Authors will be also asked to provide forward-looking recommendations.