Global Responses to Conflict and Crisis in Syria and Yemen.

• Author: Ozbek, Abdussamed

Global Responses to Conflict and Crisis in Syria and Yemen

By Amanda Guidero and Maia Carter Hallward

Cham: Palgrave Pivot, 2019, 118 pages, [euro]46,00, ISBN: 9783030027889

Global Responses to Conflict and Crisis in Syria and Yemen focuses on the humanitarian crises and international intervention in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. This book also endeavors to explain why the former has received more media attention, given the fact that the crisis in Yemen is equally severe and thus deserves the attention of the international public. In order to do so, the book compares the responses to each conflict through an examination of the coverage each conflict has received from the media, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations (IOs) (p. 2). At the outset, the authors subtly account for the reasons why the conflicts in Syria and Yemen differ both in scale and scope from the rest of the tensions in the region triggered by the popular uprisings known as the Arab Spring, which started in Tunisia in December 2010.

The conflicts in Syria and Yemen have led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of millions. Both have become highly internationalized through the intervention of foreign actors. Despite these shared characteristics, the crises in Syria and Yemen have received different levels of global attention. A clear sign of this imbalance is revealed through the discrepancy in reporting on each conflict: "since 2010, much higher numbers of articles have been published about the conflict in Syria from many more countries than articles dealing with the conflict in Yemen" (p. 3). Putting aside the conventional wisdom and realist theories of IR, which might suggest that this discrepancy has to do with great power interests, the book seeks to find alternative explanations by taking into consideration such other factors as identity politics, economic issues and the relative power and location of the Yemeni and Syrian diasporas.

The first chapter provides for the general reader a brief overview of the countries and their respective conflicts. The conflicts in Yemen and Syria have both inflicted huge and irrecoverable losses on each country and its people, resulting in a critical situation where more than half of the population in Syria (around 13 million people) are in dire need of humanitarian assistance and 8 million people in Yemen are at risk of famine. Therefore, the authors rightly argue...