Yemen in the International Security Agenda: The Context of Tribalism, Sectarianism, and Intervention.

• Author: Kiyici, Hakan
• Position: Tribes and Politics in Yemen: A History of the Houthi Conflict; Yemen Endures: Civil War, Saudi Adventurism and the Future of Arabia; Global Responses to Conflict and Crisis in Syria and Yemen

Tribes and Politics in Yemen: A History of the Houthi Conflict

By Marieke Brandt

New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, 472 pages, $45.00, ISBN: 9780190673598

Yemen Endures: Civil War, Saudi Adventurism and the Future of Arabia

By Ginny Hill

New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, 391 pages, $23.30, ISBN: 9780190842369

Global Responses to Conflict and Crisis in Syria and Yemen

By Amanda Guidero and Maia C. Hallward

Chan: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 118 pages, $46.79, ISBN: 9783030027889

The effects of the Arab Spring of 2011 have continued to change the contemporary colonial, political, social, economic and territorial sub-religious contexts, theories and paradigms in the Middle East. In December 2010, Mohammad Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia and his protest style not only inspired the Tunisian public, it also succeeded in triggering expanding social uprising waves in the region. In the conclusion of massive demonstrations, the most important autocratic key figures were dethroned, namely Tunisian President Zine alAbdine Ben Ali, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi and Yemeni President Al Abdullah Saleh. These social upheavals not only brought about regime change, but also sparked global level security problems. With the collapse of the old political order, a new political vacuum appeared, and local non-state armed actors and their proxy alliances sought to set up likeminded regimes in war-torn areas. The power gap emerging from the civil wars of Libya, Yemen and Syria have nourished transnational terror networks, waves of mass immigration, the spread of pandemic diseases and human-made calamities. Hence, the current condition of the Arab Spring can be recognized as an Arab Winter,' (1) because of the return of exauthoritarian regimes re-imposing political order. Yemen is the most dramatic example of this condition.

Following the resignation of Yemen's authoritarian leader Abdullah Saleh, the new independent regime ruled by Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi's government has yet to establish any political stability in the country. President Saleh had governed Yemen since 1978, and had succeeded in fostering reconciliation among different ethnic and sectarian actors. The unification of separate parts of the country, the Zaydi-led Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the Sunni-led People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen), was a case in point. This merger was one of the most crucial political effects of Saleh's legacy for Yemen. Following the establishment the new Yemeni state in 1992, President Saleh continued his mediator role within the military-led patronage network system. Thanks to this system, President Saleh's governance was accepted by different social, political and sectarian actors in Yemen. However, political stability broke down with the democratic protests that started in 2011, and which evolved into disorder for the country. The new President Hadi has sought to set up political stability without Saleh's patronage network legacy since 2014. Although the first days of his government succeeded in ceasing the demonstrations in the country, Yemen's fragile political condition quickly transformed into even deeper political, social and religious conflicts. In 2014, rebellious groups of Houthis took control of Yemen's capital city, Sanaa, and brought Hadi's political power to an end.

As a result of these developments, Yemenis have had to face great human-made calamities, which have placed the country atop the list of the world's most grievous emergency humanitarian crises today. According to some indictors in the overview of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), an estimated 80 percent of Yemen's population, around 24.1 million people, have had to rely on international aid in Yemen. (2) In addition, the last update of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that approximately four million Yemenis have been displaced since 2015 and more than 80 percent of these people were displaced in one year. (3) In 2017, the UN Humanitarian Chief, Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien, cynically highlighted that "a child under five dies of preventable cause every ten minutes." (4) In addition, Yemen has suffered from famine and drought conditions, which provide fertile ground for cholera and other viruses to attack the population, and death rates may increase in the coming years due to lack of international aid.

What are the key historical, political and religious references, the optimal analytical framework, and the most relevant themes...