Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Understanding the Crisis in Yemen: Evaluating Competing Narratives

2015; Routledge; Volume: 50; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03932729.2015.1053707

1751-9721

Maria‐Louise Clausen,

Socioeconomic Development in MENA

AbstractIn 2014, Yemen was referred to as one of the success stories of the Arab Spring. Yet, within months a rebel group, the Huthis, took over the capital and the Yemeni state nearly collapsed. Analyses of the crisis in Yemen have routinely reproduced one of three narratives: the Saudi-Iranian proxy war narrative, the sectarian narrative or the al-Qaeda/failed state narrative. However, a closer look shows that the onset of the crisis, although complex, is mainly driven by local factors and related to the lack of political and economic reforms after the transition in Yemen following the uprising in 2011.Keywords: YemenArab springSaudi Arabiasectarianismal-Qaeda Notes1 Closing of the National Dialogue Conference (NDC), 25 January 2014, http://www.sabanews.net/en/news339378.htm.2 Boucek and Ottaway, Yemen on the Brink; Phillips, Yemen: On the Brink.3 Peace and National Partnership Agreement (PNPA), http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/documents/darp/dv/darp20141204_05_/darp20141204_05_en.pdf.4 Resignation of the Yemeni government, 23 January 2015, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/16521-yemeni-prime-ministers-resignation-letter.5 Durac, "Yemen's Arab Spring".6 International Crisis Group, Popular Protest in North Yemen.7 Phillips, Politics of Permanent Crisis, 87-8.8 Durac, Yemen's Arab Spring, 167.9 Alley, "Yemen Changes Everything", 74; Bonnefoy, "The Shabab, Institutionalized Politics".10 Durac, Yemen's Arab Spring, 173; Gaston, Process Lessons Learned, 8.11 Gaston, Ibid., 8.12 Durac, Yemen's Arab Spring, 168.13 Winter, "Conflict in Yemen".14 Salisbury, Saudi-Iranian 'Cold War'.15 Baron, Civil War in Yemen.16 Al-Jazeera, "Al-Qaeda claims attack on Saudi Prince", 28 August, 2009, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2009/08/2009828163325631155.html.17 Hill and Nonneman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, 10.18 Zaydism takes its name from Imam Zayd b. Ali Zayn al-Abidin, who was a descendant from Ali b. Abu Talib, a relative of the Prophet Mohammad. Centrally, only descendants of Ali and Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, can become imams. Zaydism is distinct from the Twelver Shi'ism practiced in Iran and is sometimes referred to as 'Fiver' Shi'ism, largely endemic to Yemen. See Winter, "Conflict in Yemen".19 Bonnefoy, "Deconstructing Salafism in Yemen".20 See Gause, Saudi-Yemeni Relations, for a more detailed account of the relationship between Yemen and Saudi Arabia up to the early 1980s.21 Islah is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen, which the Saudis designated a terrorist organisation in 2014 and view as a challenge to the Saudi dynastic rule. Although Saudi Arabia previously had a close relationship with one of the founding members of Islah, the highly influential Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, the relationship between the Al-Ahmars and the Saudis has deteriorated since his death. This may have influenced the Saudi's silence at the time of his death, as they were not too unhappy to see Islah, which had emerged strengthened from the 2011 transition, somewhat weakened.22 Middle East Monitor, "Sanaa is the fourth capital to join the Iranian revolution", 2014, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/14389-sanaa-is-the-fourth-arab-capital-to-join-the-iranian-revolution.23 Stenslie, "Decisive Storm".24 Matthiesen, The Other Saudis, 216.25 Yadav and Carapico, Breakdown of GCC Initiative.26 Matthiesen, The Other Saudis, 216-7.27 Winter, "Conflict in Yemen", 113.28 Alley, "Yemen Changes Everything", 76.29 Bonnefoy, "Deconstructing Salafism in Yemen".30 S. Carapico, "A Call to Resist Saudi (and US) Aggression in Yemen", The Nation, 2 April 2015, http://www.thenation.com/article/203225/call-resist-saudi-and-us-aggression-yemen.31 A. L. Alley, "Yemen's Huthi Takeover", Middle East Institute, International Crisis Group, 22 December 2014, http://www.mei.edu/content/article/yemens-houthi-takeover.32 Dorlian, "The Sa'ada War".33 Salisbury, Saudi-Iranian 'Cold War'.34 For a detailed account of the six rounds of fighting, see Salmoni et al., Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen.35 Bonnefoy, "Violence in Contemporary Yemen", 331.36 Baron, Civil War in Yemen; Swift, "The Boundaries of War?", 71.37 Statement by the President on ISIL, 10 September 2014, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/10/statement-president-isil-1.38 Hellmich, "Fighting al-Qaeda in Yemen", 627.39 Ibid., 621-2.40 Durac, "Yemen's Arab Spring".41 International Crisis Group, From Saada to Sanaa, 4, 17; Yadav and Carapico, Breakdown of GCC Initiative.42 Ibid, 5.43 Hill and Nonneman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.