Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “Who Are the Houthis?” a guide to understanding Yemen’s rebel group and their impact on world politics, with Elana DeLozier, an adjunct professor of international relations courses at University of Virginia and the executive director of The Sage Institute for Foreign Affairs.

Join longtime Yemen expert Elana DeLozier for a talk that will give you a much greater understanding of that country’s Houthi rebels and how they grew from a local resistance movement into a group capable of reshaping global trade.

She’ll give you a crash course on a conflict you probably haven’t been following—Yemen’s long-running civil war—and discuss the role played in it by the Houthi movement that arose in the mountains of that country’s north.

From there you’ll learn how the Houthis emerged as a threat to global trade and came into direct conflict with the United States. We’ll look at the strategic importance of the Red Sea and why maritime chokepoints like those found there matter so much. We’ll also discuss the key players protecting the world’s trade routes and how geography still plays an outsized role in shaping global affairs.

You’ll walk away with both a better understanding of one of today’s most under-covered conflicts and a new appreciation for how the ripples from events in faraway waterways can reach our shores. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)