Cameron Hudson: The next Strait of Hormuz? Inside the scramble for the Red Sea

Cameron Hudson has worked the Horn of Africa file from inside three branches of the U.S. government, as a CIA Africa analyst, NSC Director for African Affairs, and Chief of Staff to successive U.S. Special Envoys for Sudan. He now runs 54 Advisors, a political and investment risk firm focused on Africa, and is a non-resident senior associate at the CSIS Africa Program.He joins Jim Stenman to unpack the most consequential and least understood story in geopolitics right now: the scramble for influence over the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa.The conversation covers the Trump administration's quiet move to normalise relations with Eritrea, the collapse of the Pretoria peace agreement and the risk of a new Tigray war, the contradictions inside U.S. policy toward Ethiopia, the rivalry between the UAE and Saudi Arabia playing out across African states, Israel's recognition of Somaliland, the strategic reordering triggered by the Iran war, and the absence of any coherent American strategy for one of the most contested regions on the planet.Hudson predicted the U.S.-Eritrea reset before it broke in the Wall Street Journal in April. His Foreign Policy essay, "Washington's One-Dimensional Chess in the Horn of Africa," lays out the risks of a decision being made without a clear strategy behind it.Essential listening for anyone trying to understand where U.S. foreign policy, Gulf competition and African statecraft are converging, and where the next conflict in the region is most likely to start.Recorded May 18, 2026.