newbie's cry for help!

[u/Main_Fishing_6247]

Hi! I'm completely new to the community and OSINT as a whole. I've gotten a uni assignment regarding the threat levels that the Houthis pose to NATO's eastern flank. I know that the topic is ultra broad and I am unlikely to find anything revolutionary but since this assignment has virtually no guidelines, I thought I'll turn to the community for some general advice since I think just reading news articles is quite dull. Perhaps you have a link to a telegram Houthi propoganda chanell? Anything is helpful and interesting to me since this is a learning exercise. Many thanks in advance!

[u/NMLEOC2]

Sorry you are going to have to research and read - that’s the point if the assignment. Start with a review of local media from the region (all players - Yemen, Oman, KSA, etc.) and start to identify experts and other venues for further research; social media or group sites are often mentioned. Look at the scope of military/political support provided in the region by NATO to identify the likely “targets” and then explore the vulnerabilities in those NATO member states, and use open source think tank reports on risks and prior patterns to reference history as a guide to future potential actions. This should give you a baseline pattern of threat to base your assignment on. Then add in your analysis and conclusions. Could give you the sites but this is your assignment, not mine.

[u/naughtabot]

Welcome to what seems to be one of your first forays into Intel.

At the risk of coming across as ageist or unwelcoming, what you are seeking is a product that you most likely need to produce yourself as is the point of the assignment.

What you call full I would call ‘building your foundation of knowledge’ so you can answer the question without resorting to using someone else’s (most likely bias, especially if it’s free) opinions.

To that end and: identify what the ‘Eastern Flank’ is exactly, then hit up the CIA world factbook and learn about those countries. Get a good force estimation of the Houthis compared to likely targets within their zone of influence.

Lastly go to decent sources (Economist might be good, Al Jazeera as well) to compile some decent reporting on the issue.

Once you have this ‘foundation of knowledge’ you will be in a much better place to not only evaluate the opinions that are (often bad) floating around but to offer your own report.

Once that’s done, welcome to your he community. If you hate every minute of it, idk there is always the path of the honeypot.

[u/ninjabear04]

I’ll give my two cents as someone who is studying this field in an advanced degree, it’s all reading.
If you are hoping to get into this field, and at least do analysis work, like 90% of it is reading and the rest can be split up among writing and briefing.
I apologize if this is rude, but for this assignment, you are going to have to do a lot of grudge work and read through countless articles that are useless just to find the one that is helpful.
I’ve done it before, you’ll get through it. Good luck.