Saudi-led Coalition Research Articles

The geopolitics of human suffering: a comparative study of media coverage of the conflicts in Yemen and Ukraine

A Saudi-led coalition of states initiated an on-going-armed conflict in Yemen on 26 March 2015. Meanwhile, Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Though no two armed conflicts are exactly alike, there is reason to compare US media coverage of the two because: (1) civilians have been victims of both conflicts; (2) both conflicts have undermined food security; (3) the US has provided military support to a party to each of the conflicts; and (4) the conflict in Yemen is in the Global South whereas the conflict in Ukraine is in the Global North. This article comparatively analyses US media coverage of the conflicts in Yemen and Ukraine, via New York Times headlines, by documenting the number of stories and their placement; assessing the types of media frames used; reviewing headlines for attribution of responsibility; and conducting a content analysis to identify the descriptive and normative terminology used. We find extensive biases in coverage and framing, rooted in peripheralism, culturalism and differential geopolitical US positioning. This results in reduced coverage of the war in Yemen, shielded in neutral language and lacking responsibility attribution—serving to devalue the suffering of victims and condemning the crisis to be functionally forgotten.

Exploiting and constructing legal ambiguity. UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia during the war in Yemen

ABSTRACT While ambiguity is a common feature of international obligations, there is a strong theoretical anticipation that ambiguities may be exploited, and obligations circumvented, under competing interests. This article largely backs this anticipation. The article scrutinises how ambiguous arms export control obligations are handled under strong incentives for arms export. The empirical case explored is the UK government’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia during the war in Yemen. Exports continued despite evidence that the Saudi-led coalition was violating international humanitarian law (IHL) in Yemen, and despite obligations not to export if there is a risk that the exported equipment can be used in IHL violations. A resulting legal challenge against the UK government provides valuable information about the role of ambiguity in the implementation of arms export controls. Drawing on primary sources from the legal process, this article argues that the UK government has taken advantage of linguistic ambiguity. The article also argues that the government has engaged in the continuous construction of ambiguity around events in Yemen and around the ideal parameters for arms trade risk assessment. Together, these strategies have facilitated continued arms exports to Saudi Arabia.

The Unspoken Agenda of Houthi Digital Poetry in Yemen’s Current War Crisis

This article examines how the Houthi rebels in Yemen use tribal poetry as a propaganda platform to influence public opinion about the current war crisis in the country. By digitalizing Yemeni oral popular poetry, zamil, in the form of motivational war songs and YouTube videos, the Houthi militia group is able to attract young supporters, and publicly denounce Saudi airstrikes and the international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. While the study unpacks the hidden agenda of Houthi digital poetry and its multiple underpinnings, it sheds light on two important findings: 1) the understudied role of Houthi media campaign the way it’s been used as a digital weapon to advance Yemen’s Shiite militia movement, 2) how the Houthi use of social media revived a Yemeni poetic tradition, zawamil (plural of zamil) to disseminate a wide populous sentiment against the Saudi-led coalition and the United Nations Security Council in this civil conflict.

Biden Administration Launches Reset in Relations with Saudi Arabia, Withdraws Support for Saudi-Led War in Yemen

The Biden administration has undertaken to reset U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, making early moves to break with the Trump administration's policy toward the country on several key fronts. White House officials have shifted the locus of diplomatic contact between the two countries from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who enjoyed a close relationship with the Trump administration, to his father, King Salman. U.S. officials publicly released an intelligence report accusing Prince Mohammed of ordering the 2018 killing of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and levied travel sanctions against seventy-six Saudi nationals in the crown prince's orbit. President Biden has also taken steps to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen's civil war, revoking the terrorist designation assigned to the Houthi rebels in the final days of the Trump administration and initiating a review of U.S. arms sales.

The Role of Systemic and Leadership Factors in Influencing Malaysia’s Joint Military Involvementin the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen,2015–2018

Malaysia’s military involvement in the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen Ops Yemen II (2015–2018) had been a subject of rigorous debate in the country. Those who opposed it saw the operation as a breach of Malaysia’s Non-Alignment Policy, especially when it involves military operation in a foreign country’s civil war. The main objective of this study is to critically analyze why and how the Barisan Nasional (BN)-led Malaysian government decided to send armed forces to participate in the Saudi-led military operations stationed in Riyadh. In examining this, an analysis on the role of systemic and leadership factors within the conceptual framework of the foreign policy of developing countries is used to explain the character of Malaysia’s joint military operation with Saudi Arabia in the Yemen Crisis. The method and data analysis of this article were mostly derived from written documentary analysis and discussion with related individuals. The findings indicated that both systemic political pressure and the role of leadership were constantly and constructively influenced intersubjective interactions with other domestic factors, which played a vital role in Malaysia’s decision to join the Saudi-led military operations.

Humanitarian challenges and the targeting of civilian infrastructure in the Yemen war

Abstract Many modern conflicts, from Iraq to Yemen, have emerged as brutal wars in which state and non-state actors directly and indirectly target a wide array of civilian infrastructures, including water, energy and food systems. Similar to many twentieth-century wars, a common feature of the wars in the Middle East and North Africa in the twenty-first century has been the ‘civilianization’ of war, as civilian casualties far outnumbered battlefield deaths. We explore the targeting of civilian infrastructures in the Yemeni war (2011–2019) to explicate the connections between conflict, hunger and disease. We draw upon interviews with UN and humanitarian organizations, an original database tracking civilian infrastructure destruction, and a variety of print sources to document the extent and spatial distribution of the targeting of water, energy, agricultural and health systems in Yemen. We elucidate how the conduct of the Yemeni war has undermined human security and livelihoods and has created ethical, logistical and organizational challenges for humanitarian organizations and for advancing peacebuilding efforts. We find that after the 2011 popular uprising, some non-state actors targeted the energy sector; however, the scope and intensity of wartime targeting of civilian objects, particularly those associated with agriculture, fisheries and health, increased significantly once the Saudi-led coalition entered the war in 2015. Loss of livelihoods, internal displacement, currency depreciation, and blockades and sieges further intensified the wartime spread of hunger and disease. The targeting of civilian infrastructures significantly hinders peacebuilding efforts to restore basic services, rebuild livelihoods and strengthen governance mechanisms.

Seeking a Responsible Arms Trade to Reduce Human Suffering in Yemen

ABSTRACT The war in Yemen has shown inconsistencies in European Union (EU) member states’ arms export control practices: specifically, how they have applied international humanitarian law standards in their arms transfer decisions towards members of the Saudi-led coalition involved in the conflict. While such discrepancies are not new, the ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty by all EU member states, including the United Kingdom (UK) at the time, has provided another framework for bringing these controversies into the spotlight. It has also provided non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the UK and France with further legal grounds to challenge the legality of these governments’ arms exports to Saudi Arabia and to seek their compliance with their obligations in the field of arms trade. These actions are noteworthy in terms of the information they provide on states’ arms export risk assessment procedures, on how to interpret and implement applicable legislation, and their possible impact on other countries’ decision-making in the same domain.

Congress and the Trump Administration Spar Over U.S. Arms Sales to the Saudi-Led Coalition in Yemen

Longstanding tensions between Congress and the executive over U.S. support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen have spurred conflict between the branches over arms sales. In May 2019, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo declared an emergency under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) to bypass congressional “freezes” on arms sales and complete $8.1 billion in sales to members of the Saudi-led coalition. In response, Congress requested that the State Department inspector general (IG) investigate the matter. In a report released in August 2020, the IG determined that the emergency declaration comported with the AECA's procedural requirements but that the State Department's risk assessments and civilian casualty mitigation measures did not fully address legal concerns about the sales. The Trump administration has continued to move forward with arms sales, including by unilaterally reinterpreting a nonbinding multilateral export control regime to eliminate prohibitions on the export of certain unmanned aerial systems (UAS). A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced a bill to prevent such sales to all countries except select U.S. allies. In September, a UN report criticized U.S. and other countries’ arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition and recommended referral of the situation in Yemen to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

‚Zone der Nicht-Verantwortlichkeit‘: Der Vertrag über den Waffenhandel und die Lizensierung von Gewalt

The ongoing conflict in Yemen is a site of humanitarian catastrophe, unimaginable atrocity, and human suffering. Since the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in March 2015, several months after the entry into force of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the Yemen conflict has been fuelled by ongoing arms supplies by Western states and corporations. The scale and significance of these arms supply relationships has been the subject of unprecedented, concerted efforts by a legal platform of non-governmental organisations and legal advocates to mobilise the ATT in its broader environment of cognate international and domestic laws, to challenge these arms transfers before the domestic courts of arms-supplying states. In the absence of international oversight mechanisms, the ATT casts national authorities, licensing bodies, and domestic courts in a principal governing role in relation to the global arms trade. Drawing on the transnational legal work to contest and resist arms supply relationships conditioning the violence in Yemen, this essay examines the interpretative and paralegal practices of domestic authorities, constituted by and generative of (inter)national arms control law.

UNESCO, world heritage and the gridlock over Yemen

Since March 2015, the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen has had devastating consequences for the country, its people and its rich cultural heritage. This article traces the responses of the world’s foremost multilateral body concerned with heritage promotion and protection, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research and long-term ethnographic research on UNESCO itself and, more specifically, its responses to the war in Yemen, it documents UNESCO’s profound failures in protecting Yemen’s heritage and in confronting the Saudi-led coalition. To do so, the article utilises the framework of ‘gridlock’ to analyse how and why multilateral bodies such as UNESCO become hamstrung in confronting powerful member states in conflict. The article concludes by arguing that UNESCO’s failures in Yemen hold powerful lessons about the role of multilateral institutions in addressing conflict.

General Framework for Post-conflict Reconstruction in Yemen

The war in Yemen, which escalated in March 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened, with comprehensive blockade and air campaign has turned a poor country into a humanitarian catastrophe. The impacts of the conflict in Yemen are devastating—with nearly a quarter of a million people killed directly by fighting and indirectly through lack of access to food, health services, and infrastructure. The economy has collapsed, and fighting has ravaged the country’s infrastructure. The reconstruction and recovery of Yemen will demand rebuilding the economy, restoring state institutions and infrastructure and repairing the social fabric. Good governance plays a key role in rebuilding Yemen as a post-conflict state. The task is thus to build transparent, efficient and participative governance structures that can help to stabilise the volatile transformation of post-conflict society. This paper intends to clarify how good governance can be promoted in Yemen as conflict / post-conflict country and which role the political and administrative system could play in this context. This paper is based on a literature review of the main theories and issues involved in post-conflict reconstruction, coupled with an analysis of relevant case studies and good practices from different countries. The main recommendations most urgently needed are; establishing safety and security, strengthening constitutional government, reconstructing infrastructure and restoring services, stabilizing and growing the economy, and strengthening justice and reconciliation organizations.

Retoryka kryzysu jemeńskiego w oficjalnych komunikatach obu stron konfliktu w latach 2016-2019

Niniejszy artykuł dotyczy analizy i porównania środków retorycznych zawartych w oficjalnych oświadczeniach publikowanych w latach 2016-2019 przez strony zaangażowane w konflikt jemeński, który stanowi arenę rywalizacji politycznej, militarnej i gospodarczej między dwoma mocarstwami regionalnymi: Królestwem Arabii Saudyjskiej i Islamską Republiką Iranu. Zaprezentowane badania wskazują, że zarówno koalicja zbrojna pod przywództwem Arabii Saudyjskiej, jak i rebelianci jemeńscy wykorzystują rozgrywające się wydarzenia do budowy swojego pozytywnego wizerunku i potępienia przeciwnika. Zasadniczą rolę w tym kontekście odgrywają odpowiednie środki retoryczne kształtujące emocjonalny charakter przekazu wpływający na opinię publiczną i jej poparcie dla danej strony konfliktu.

4 Middle East and North Africa

Key trendsConflicts in the Middle East remain highly regionalised and internationalised; rivalries among external powers play out across the region.The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) liberated the last ISIS-held territory in Syria. ISIS adapted by resorting to insurgency tactics, in both Syria and Iraq.Iraq’s post-ISIS stabilisation is tentative. By 2019, a large protest movement upended Iraqi politics, while US–Iran tensions also played out in the Iraqi arena.In Libya, a new, more brutal phase of civil war began, with more direct involvement of regional rivals.Egypt contended with regular attacks in the Sinai Peninsula although the insurgency began to lose its strength.Israeli dominance and unilateralism shaped the trajectory of the Israel–Palestine conflict.Strategic implicationsSyria is likely to remain an exporter of instability in the foreseeable future and to continue drawing external interference.Turkey’s intervention in Syria isolated the country from its regional interlocutors and NATO allies. Russia attempted to fill the diplomatic vacuum created bythe sudden withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria.The influence of pro-Iranian militias, the weakness of the central government and US–Iran tensions put the stability of Iraq at risk.Many global powers see the conflict in Libya as an opportunity to expand their strategic influence in the Mediterranean.The Saudi-led coalition came under greater scrutiny in 2019, from the US and UK in particular.President Trump’s pro-Israeli policies alienated Palestinians and undermined the United States’ role as negotiator.ProspectsWhile a comprehensive and inclusive political settlement in Syria remains elusive, a new insurgency is brewing in southern Syria. The resurgence of ISIS is already under way.A lull in hostilities in northern Syria is possible, but prospects for peace are non-existent in the short term. Turkish forces in Syrian areas are creating tensions with local communities and fuel low-intensity conflict.A return to large-scale territorial control by ISIS is unlikely, but without adequate counter-insurgency efforts, Iraq will struggle to eliminate remaining militants.The Saudi-led coalition’s declining appetite for war in Yemen suggests a potential peace settlement more expansive than the Stockholm Agreement envisaged.Increased fragmentation in Libya raises concerns over a possible partition. Proxy wars are unlikely to end soon.

German Corporate and Government Officials’ Involvement in Arms Trade with Countries of the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen: A Link in the Supply Chain Leading to Criminal Liability for Alleged War Crimes?

German Corporate and Government Officials’ Involvement in Arms Trade with Countries of the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen: A Link in the Supply Chain Leading to Criminal Liability for Alleged War Crimes?

Yemen: the challenge of delivering aid in an active conflict zone

ABSTRACT Introduction: In March 2015 a Saudi-led coalition began an air campaign and ground offensive in Yemen. The conflict has resulted in at least 100,000 people killed and 3.2 million people internally displaced. Over the last 29 months of the war, the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation (YRRF), working through an informal network of indigenous volunteers, has successfully provided food, clothing, medicine and water filters to areas under siege. Context: Asymmetric warfare complicates humanitarian assistance. YRRF succeeds through an informal network: hundreds of Yemeni volunteers negotiating passage through competing armed checkpoints focussed on concrete, lifesaving action. Method: A case-study report about a local, informal, Yemeni-led relief organisation supported by remote financing and training. Findings: YRRF has succeeded in delivering food and clothing to more than 20,000 families, distributing more than 1200 water filters to remote villages and internally displaced families and medicine to five cancer centres. Innovative contribution: Yemen has multiple combatants within its territory, with competing systems for aid distribution and healthcare delivery. YRRF has developed an efficient and cost-effective technique for managing those complex environments while delivering care to fragile, and often displaced, populations in a war zone. Dynamic networks: local volunteers, working with local leaders, understanding culutral aspects, in country office, staying aploitical and meeting the needs of the population are key.

Individual Criminal Liability for Arms Exports under the ICC Statute

Abstract Cases against corporate managers for their involvement in international crimes are rare. Still, legal precedent from the Nuremberg trials and more recent cases in national jurisdictions shows that corporate officers of arms manufacturing companies may be liable under international criminal law (ICL) when exported arms are used for the commission of war crimes. This article examines the circumstances under which corporate officers responsible for weapons exports can be criminally liable as accomplices to war crimes under Article 25(3)(c) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). To corroborate our analysis, we use the case study of European arms exports to members of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. There is evidence that this coalition has been committing war crimes in Yemen since 2015. Despite factual difficulties and legal complexities such as the mens rea standard of Article 25(3)(c) ICC Statute, we argue that corporate officers involved in arms exports may be individually liable, depending on their contribution to the commission of war crimes; their knowledge and awareness of the consequences of the provision of arms due to the abundance of information in the public domain; and the international standards for corporate human rights due diligence that apply to their specific business activities.

Pumping Yemen Dry: A History of Yemen’s Water Crisis

Yemen, located on the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. Quite apart from the continuing catastrophic conflict, the massive overdraw of existing groundwater due to unregulated drilling of tube wells since the 1970s has created a major water crisis that affects the future of the county’s estimated 28 million people. While once known for its rich traditions of agriculture due to its extensive highland terrace systems, spate flow and runoff water harvesting, Yemen is now food insecure, relying almost entirely on food imports. This article surveys the range of water resources in Yemen and their sustainability in light of climate change predictions. I examined government and development aid reports to highlight the causes of the water crisis and the failure of previous governments to resolve it. The situation is even more critical today, given the ongoing war between a Saudi-led coalition and a Huthi alliance that has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. I conclude with priorities for mitigating the water crisis and promoting sustainable agriculture for Yemen’s post-conflict future.

A ‘synchronised attack’ on life: the Saudi-led coalition’s ‘hidden and holistic’ genocide in Yemen and the shared responsibility of the US and UK

Since the Saudi-led coalition (Coalition) began its military campaign in Yemen in March 2015, upwards of 13,000 Yemen civilians have been killed, including nearly 2000 women and 3000 children. Additionally, Coalition aerial attacks have intentionally targeted Yemen’s civilian infrastructure, economic infrastructure, medical facilities and cultural heritage. Combined with the ongoing air and naval blockade, which has impeded the ability of Yemenis to access clean water, food, fuel and health services, the violence visited upon Yemen has created near-famine conditions. Furthermore, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) predicts another imminent outbreak of cholera, with the potential to be as deadly as last year’s which infected more than one million children and killed a child every 10 minutes. Through engagement with genocide studies literature, this article applies a holistic conception of genocide to the Coalition military campaign. It finds that the Coalition is conducting an ongoing campaign of genocide by a ‘synchronised attack’ on all aspects of life in Yemen, one that is only possible with the complicity of the United States and United Kingdom.

Congress Signals Concern Over U.S. Role in Aiding Saudi Arabia's Activities in Yemen

As the conflict in Yemen continues, congressional concern over U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in the region has grown. The objects of these concerns include thousands of civilian casualties, a cholera epidemic, and a country on the brink of famine. In October 2018, relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia became further complicated by the brutal death of Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and outspoken critic of the Saudi government.

An Analysis of the Saudi-led coalition's Attack on Yemen on the Basis of the International Criminal Court

The Saudi-led coalition's Attack to Yemen killed and wounded thousands of people, many of whom were women and children. Numerous civilian targets, such as hospitals and schools were bombed and destroyed in these attacks, which resulted in famine, malnutrit...