The War in Yemen

While it is difficult to pin down the start of the current “War in Yemen,” an ongoing civil war since at least 2014, considerable foreign intervention since March 2015, and waves of cholera outbreaks have attracted growing international attention.

After Syria and Iraq, Yemen is a major site of U.S. armed involvement and intervention in the Middle East and North Africa. 2018 brought increased domestic focus on U.S. support for counter-terrorism operations within Yemen as well as foreign intervention into the civil war. Given how little is known about Yemen and the conflict in the United States, this curated list provides an entry point for learning more.

• Tawakkol Karman, “Our revolution’s doing what Saleh can’t — unite Yemen,” Guardian op-ed, 8 April 2011. 
  • A reminder of the 2011 uprising as a moment of high hopes
• Khadijah al-Salami’s, “The Scream,” 2012
  • Film focusing on the role of Yemeni women in the uprising.
• Lisa Wedeen, Peripheral Visions: Power, Politics, and Performance in Yemen, 2011
  • Explores Yemenis’ democratic practices even in the shadow of authoritarianism and state weakness prior to 2011
• Ibrahim Fraihat, “A Lasting Peace? Yemen’s Long Journey to Reconciliation,” Brookings Doha Center analysis paper, 2013
  • On the challenges facing post-revolutionary Yemen and hopes for the reconciliation process

• Marieke Brandt, Tribes and Politics in Yemen: A History of the Houthi Conflict, 2017
  • Brandt brings significant local expertise to bear on the Yemeni roots of what is now an international conflict
• Isa Blumi, Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia Tells Us about The World, 2018
  • On Yemen’s long history of international entanglement.
• Anna Gordon and Sarah E. Parkinson, “How the Houthis Became ‘Shi’a‘” Middle East Research and Information Project, 27 January 2018.
  • On “the Salih regime’s invention of the claim that the Houthis are ‘Iranian-backed Shi‘a'”
• Peter Salisbury, “Yemen: National Chaos, Local Order,” Chatham House, 2017
  • On the fragmentation of political order within Yemen
• Nadwa Dawsari, “Foe Not Friend: Yemeni Tribes and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” POMED, 2018
  • On the role of Yemen’s tribes in providing public order, their efforts to resist the advance of Al Qaeda, and the ways that U.S. counter-terrorism strategy has bred anger towards both the Yemeni and U.S. governments
• Greg Johnsen, “Yemen’s Three Wars,” Lawfare, 2018
  • An integrated view of the struggle against terrorism, the civil war, and the role of regional and foreign powers in Yemen

The Way Forward

• Alexandra Stark, “The Keys to Peace in Yemen,” Fair Observer, 18 October 2018
  • A concise overview of the challenges facing peace in Yemen, from the 1990 reconciliation between North and South Yemen to the present
• Stacey Philbrick Yadav , “Fragmentation and Localization in Yemen’s War: Challenges and Opportunities for Peace,” Brandeis University Crown Center for Middle East Studies Middle East Brief, November 2018
  • Breaks down how Yemen’s current conflict goes far beyond “proxy war” framings
• Adam Baron, Ellie Geranmayeh and Julien Barnes-Dacey, “Humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen: What can Europe do?,” European Council on Foreign Relations, 2018
  • Podcast on the humanitarian situation.
  • See also commentary by Adam Baron on the peace process – most recently “Inertia on the Red Sea coast: Will Yemen’s political process collapse?,” 2019
• Stacey Philbrick Yadav and Marc Lynch, “Why it won’t be easy to resolve Yemen’s many wars,” The Washington Post Monkey Cage blog, January 26, 2018. 
  • See also (/listen to) Elana DeLozier, “The Yemen Civil War Has Decades Ahead to Burn Out,” The John Batchelor Show, 2019

Literature, History and the Arts

• “6 Authors Who Are Part of Yemen’s Literary History and Literary Resurgence,” 27 March 2015.
  • An introduction to Yemeni authors and poets whose work is available in English translation
• Dorian Geiger, “Yemen: Art, love, bombs, and bans: Yemen’s most prolific street artist copes with Donald Trump’s immigration ban,” Al-Jazeera, 17 February 2017
• Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, 2007
  • Might be hard to track down, but a lovely travelogue of Yemeni society and culture in Sana’a and beyond

Yemen and the United States: Travel Ban

• Julie Watson and Paul Elias, “Yemeni mom overcame travel ban to hold her dying son in U.S.,” Associated Press, 20 December 2018.
• David Bier, “Travel Ban Separates Thousands of U.S. Citizens from Their Spouses and Minor Children,” Cato at Liberty, 29 January 2019.
  • 57% of family members separated by the travel ban are Yemenis
• Congressional Research Service: U.S. Policies and Yemen
  • Jeremy Sharp, “Yemen: Civil War and Regional Intervention,” 2019
    • On U.S. involvement in counter-terrorism operations and the civil war in Yemen
  • “Congress and the War in Yemen: Oversight and Legislation 2015-2019” 2019
    • On efforts to restrict U.S. operations in Yemen and exercise greater Congressional oversight