Strategy International highlights the publication of a new book chapter by our affiliate, Dr Minas Lyristis, titled “Defensive Realism, Geoeconomic Statecraft, and Riyadh’s Strategic Recalibration in Yemen.” The chapter appears in Economic Trends and Policy Responses in Times of Conflict and Global Instability, edited by Eleni Gavriil, Zakia Aqra, and Georgios Deirmentzoglou, and published by IGI Global Scientific Publishing. It examines the evolution of Saudi Arabia’s approach to Yemen and the wider strategic logic behind Riyadh’s changing regional posture.
Drawing on Defensive Realism, the chapter argues that Saudi Arabia’s gradual movement away from large-scale military intervention should not be understood simply as disengagement or retreat. Instead, it is presented as part of a broader strategic recalibration in which the Kingdom seeks to reduce exposure to prolonged conflict while protecting its core security interests and preserving its regional influence. The analysis focuses on the pressures that have shaped this shift: the prolonged costs of the Yemen war, the Houthi missile and drone threat, changes in the regional balance of power, and the requirements of Saudi Arabia’s domestic transformation. In this framework, security policy is increasingly connected to the Kingdom’s wider economic objectives and to the need to create a more stable regional environment for Vision 2030.
A central contribution of the chapter is its treatment of geoeconomics as part of Saudi strategic behaviour. Investment, critical infrastructure, trade routes, economic diversification, and the protection of major development projects are not examined as separate from national security. Rather, the chapter shows how these priorities increasingly shape Riyadh’s assessment of risk and its preference for combining military capabilities with diplomacy, economic statecraft, de-escalation, and more selective forms of regional engagement. Yemen therefore matters beyond the conflict itself. The case offers a wider lens for understanding the evolution of Saudi foreign policy and the ways in which Gulf states are adapting their security strategies in a period when geopolitical competition and economic transformation are increasingly intertwined. The chapter contributes to the debate on how states can pursue security and strategic autonomy without relying exclusively on sustained military intervention.
The chapter forms part of Economic Trends and Policy Responses in Times of Conflict and Global Instability, an edited volume that examines the relationship between conflict, economic systems, and geopolitical fragmentation. The book brings together work on geoeconomics, economic statecraft, global instability, trade and investment, and the growing use of economic instruments in foreign and security policy.
The publication contributes to Strategy International’s research agenda on Saudi Arabia, Gulf security, Middle Eastern geopolitics, geoeconomics, and the changing relationship between security policy and economic transformation.
Read Dr. Lyristis’ publication here.
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