Yemeni Civil Research Articles

State’s reactions to attacks by Houthis as a testbed for the use of force against non-State actors

Attacks perpetrated, since November 2023, by Houthis, in the Red Sea, against commercial and military vessels raise interesting questions on the qualification of the use of force. On-the-spot self-defence against Houthi armed attacks taking place in the high seas is lawful. Further action against inland Houthis revisits the much discussed admissibility of the use of force against non-State actors (under Article 51 of the Charter, self-defence is designed to be exercised against States) and the requirements of self-defence. The UN Security Council has been following the Yemeni civil war, but no authorisation was granted for the use of force against Houthis. No invitation to intervene was addressed by Yemen to any of the States claiming self defence against inland Houthis in response to recent naval attacks. Self-defence against inland Houthis, if unopposed by the territorial State, may be lawfully construed as an act against a de facto Government.

Epidemiology of traumatically injured Yemeni civilians treated at the Omani National Trauma Centre over a 2-year period: a retrospective cohort study

IntroductionArmed conflict is a growing global cause of death, posing a significant threat to the resilience of global health systems. However, the burden of disease resulting from the Yemeni Civil...

Reading the Yemeni Civil War through Historical Continuity and Ruptures

Bu çalışma, 2014’te başlayan Yemen İç Savaşı’nı ülkenin bağımsızlığından bugüne yaşanan iç savaşlar silsilesinin tarihsel derinliği içerisinde ele almayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada Yemen İç Savaşı’nın ülkenin modern tarihindeki savaşlarda gözlemlenen süreklilik ve kopuş unsurlarını bünyesinde bir arada barındırdığı ve bu unsurlar çerçevesinde yapılacak bir analizin daha açıklayıcı olacağı iddia edilmektedir. Bu çerçevede vurgulanan süreklilik unsuru, Yemen’in jeopolitik önemi nedeniyle 19. yüzyıldan bugüne bölgede stratejik üs edinmeye çalışan denizaşırı güçlerle, Arap Yarımadası’ndaki hâkimiyetini çepere yaymaya çalışan komşu karasal güçler arasında hep bir hâkimiyet mücadelesine sahne olmasıdır. Çalışmada vurgulanan temel kopuş unsuruysa, 1994’teki iç savaşta uluslararası aktörlerin rolünün asgari düzeyde olması ve savaşın çok hızlı bir şekilde sonuçlanmasıdır. 2014’te başlayan iç savaş, bir yandan 1994’teki kopuş anında ortaya çıkan Yemenli aktörleri ve çatışma dinamiklerini bünyesinde barındırmaktayken, diğer yandan bir dizi deniz aşırı ve karasal gücün müdahalesiyle uluslararsılaşmış ve böylece Yemen tarihindeki süreklilik unsuru tekrarlanmıştır. Çalışmada nitel bir yöntem benimsenmiş olup, ortaya konan analitik çerçevede gerçekleşen tarihsel bir anlatıya dayanmaktadır. Makalede kullanılan veriler çoğunlukla akademik yayınlar ve düşünce kuruluşu raporları gibi güvenilir ikincil kaynaklara dayanmakta olup, yer yer haberler ve devlet arşivleri gibi birincil kaynaklara da başvurulmuştur.

Revisiting Gandhi’s Philosophy: A Quest for Global Peace

More than three dozen conflicts are presently ongoing throughout the world. Of these, six have been converted into major wars, viz.: Yemeni Civil War, Mexican Drug War, Afghanistan Conflict, Myanmar Conflict, Ethiopian Civil War and the Russia-Ukraine War. Innocent citizens of these countries, including women and children, are being brutally killed in these conflicts. War leads to disaster. And after the holocaust one tends to preserve what is left behind and creates, once again, what has been destroyed. Ultimately, the end sufferers of the war going countries are its guiltless citizens. Solution to the above-mentioned violent conflicts lies in the Gandhian philosophy based on its four major principles, viz.: satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), satyagraha and sarvodaya. There is little scope for greed, lie, hatred, and urge for power, violence and possessiveness in Gandhian philosophy. After all when shall man realize that he is not immortal. Man has to realize that the mentality for more than required material possessiveness is the root cause of poverty and starvation. Wealth earned throughout life cannot be carried after death. The aforesaid chaos and conflict, which the world faces today is because man is running blindly in quest for the attainment of material gains and for the acquisition of absolute power. This selfish quest for money and power attracts jealousy and hatred from all corners ultimately resulting into grievous conflicts. And, therefore, Gandhi propagated in favour of non-possessiveness and detachment from material things. The world has had enough of bloodshed for the establishment of a so called just order, i.e., based on freedom and democracy, especially after the II World War. It is high time these conflicting countries realize that peace is indivisible and so is freedom and both together co-exist and are indivisible too.

Liquid or Solid Warfare? Autocratic States, Non-State Armed Groups and the Socio-Spatial Dimension of Warfare in Yemen

ABSTRACT Precision-strike warfare from a distance is frequently presented as a particularly democratic way of war. Governments of democratic states avoid boots on the ground, as they fear not getting re-elected should a war result in many casualties and high economic costs. From the perspective of ‘liquid modernity’ (Bauman 2000), where power is uncoupled from the control of territory, liquid warfare, a way of war that eschews territorial confinement and related responsibilities for order-building, should be a tempting option for autocratic states and non-state armed groups (NSAGs), too – if they have the technological means at their disposal. Based on socio-spatial concepts from political geography, this article develops a typology of liquid and solid warfare and probes, whether and how the proliferation of precision-strike technology to Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has influenced the socio-spatial dimension of their warfare in the internationalised Yemeni civil war. The findings suggest that liquid warfare is not necessarily confined to Western, democratic conduct of war, posing the question whether these labels do fit anymore.

Shi’i Communities in Southeast Asia: Religious Harmony Institutions and Peaceful Sunni-Shia

The Shi’a in Singapore are imbued with the local political culture of striving towards religious harmony. The Ismailis, being the oldest Shi’i community in Singapore, had to go through Singapore’s nation-building phase while the Imamis who precipitated after the Iranian revolution already had the building blocks of peaceful relations and may benefit from contemporary laws regarding religious harmony. The misconceived irreconcilability between the two has often been used as an explanation of the region’s turmoil, whenever both communities are involved. This is unsurprising as Sunni-Shi’a “hatred” manifested in the Syrian conflict that started in 2011, the Yemeni civil war that began in 2014, and not to forget the historical sectarian violence that had been going on in the region. Singapore has a unique religio-political setting of religious freedom and harmony. The type of faith-politics that Singapore has is pluralistic to the extent that the laws allow for it and because Singapore’s political culture of faith is free and harmony-seeking. The only impediment to intra-faith harmony between the Sunnis and Shi’a in Singapore is the intrusion of external political sentiments into the local political culture of faith, through the globalisation of religious ideas and ideology. The type of relations between Sunnis and Shi’a in Singapore has been historically peaceful, situated in the larger secular-pluralistic type of politics of faith in Singapore. When political matters of the Middle East are set aside or have no relevance, Sunnis and Shi’a in Singapore are able to live not just in tolerance of each other, but also harmoniously participating in the larger Singapore society.

2014–2021 Civil Conflict in Yemen in Western Media Coverage: Comparative Analysis

The article presents and analyzes the positions of such Western media as CNN, BBC, EuroNews regarding the civil conflict in Yemen. The key events and topics that are revealed in these media are highlighted. The general and distinct features of the materials covering the conflict in Yemen are given. In conclusion, it was stated that although the conflict in Yemen is not so “popular”, there are quite a lot of materials covering the Yemeni civil war in the mainstream media of the West. However, some Western media, in particular CNN and BBC, reviewed by this author, present information about the events taking place in Yemen in a favorable way for these media. Nevertheless, EuroNews, being the main voice of the European Union, is trying to remain neutral. Assumptions are made about the role of the media in the conflicts’ resolution process.

The Role of Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the Yemeni Civil Wars

The Arabian Peninsula was one of the defining regions of world politics in the last century and still is today. The states of the region have always tried to extend their influence on the peninsula, which has caused conflicts in several cases. In my study, I examine the intervention of Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the Yemeni civil wars of 1962 and 2015, and I also compare the two Yemeni conflicts mentioned above. I present the foreign and domestic political reasons for which Riyadh and Cairo participated in these struggles. Because of the interventions, the situation in Yemen can be interpreted not only as the internal affairs of the country, but also as one of the defining problems of the region. In my work, I review the regional power aspirations that characterized the period of the two civil wars. The following questions play an important role in my work: What are the similarities and differences between the Yemeni civil wars of 1962 and 2015? What are the local and global effects of the ongoing Yemeni armed conflict?

The Construction of Strategic Narrative in the Saudi-Iranian Regional Rivalry: The Case of the Yemeni Civil War

This study discusses strategic narratives of Saudi Arabia and Iran through the example of the Yemeni Civil War (2011-2021). During their regional power struggle, the two countries construct their narratives against each other by means of the media. The strategic narratives of Saudi Arabia and Iran are examined at three levels: issue, identity and system narratives. The research has intended to determine how the media of the two countries define the Yemeni Civil War, the identity references they have made to each other and the type of regional order they have envisioned. An issue-based news survey was conducted a ten-year period by selecting three international media outlets of Iran and Saudi Arabia. The news texts were analyzed by applying the qualitative content analysis technique. . It was observed that by using the strategic narrative as a tool, the two regional rival powers made a great effort to present their attitudes and behavior as legitimate, and the other side as illegitimate in the presence of international public opinion.

Dynamic mapping of cholera outbreak during the Yemeni Civil War, 2016–2019

Widespread destruction from the Yemeni Civil War (2014–present) triggered the world’s largest cholera outbreak. We compiled a comprehensive health dataset and created dynamic maps to demonstrate spatiotemporal changes in cholera infections and war conflicts. We aligned and merged daily, weekly, and monthly epidemiological bulletins of confirmed cholera infections and daily conflict events and fatality records to create a dataset of weekly time series for Yemen at the governorate level (subnational regions administered by governors) from 4 January 2016 through 29 December 2019. We demonstrated the use of dynamic mapping for tracing the onset and spread of infection and manmade factors that amplify the outbreak. We report curated data and visualization techniques to further uncover associations between infectious disease outbreaks and risk factors and to better coordinate humanitarian aid and relief efforts during complex emergencies.

The Iranian Interference and Its Implications on Security of Yemen and Saudi Arabia

The paper discusses the Iranian interference and its implications on Security of Yemen and Saudi Arabia. This research paper attempts to shed light on the reality of the local and regional conflict in Yemen, and its impact on Yemeni civil peace and regional security such Saudi Arabia. It also reveals the real goals of the regional states participating in this conflict, whether directly or indirectly. In addition, the paper presents the means and methods used by the regional powers to extend their hegemony over Yemen, and among those methods are feeding the conflict between the components of Yemeni society by supporting the parties to the conflict. The study also shows how violence has become the only means for some regional countries to achieve their strategic, economic and ideological goals, and it reveals the negative role of Yemeni elites and forces, and how these elites helped regional powers to control the country's economic imitators and others.

Signatures of Cholera Outbreak during the Yemeni Civil War, 2016-2019.

The Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) created a strategy for early outbreak detection, hotspot identification, and resource mobilization coordination in response to the Yemeni cholera epidemic. This strategy requires a systematic approach for defining and classifying outbreak signatures, or the profile of an epidemic curve and its features. We used publicly available data to quantify outbreak features of the ongoing cholera epidemic in Yemen and clustered governorates using an adaptive time series methodology. We characterized outbreak signatures and identified clusters using a weekly time series of cholera rates in 20 Yemeni governorates and nationally from 4 September 2016 through 29 December 2019 as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). We quantified critical points and periods using Kolmogorov–Zurbenko adaptive filter methodology. We assigned governorates into six clusters sharing similar outbreak signatures, according to similarities in critical points, critical periods, and the magnitude of peak rates. We identified four national outbreak waves beginning on 12 September 2016, 6 March 2017, 28 May 2018, and 28 January 2019. Among six identified clusters, we classified a core regional hotspot in Sana’a, Sana’a City, and Al-Hudaydah—the expected origin of the national outbreak. The five additional clusters differed in Wave 2 and Wave 3 peak frequency, timing, magnitude, and geographic location. As of 29 December 2019, no governorates had returned to pre-Wave 1 levels. The detected similarity in outbreak signatures suggests potentially shared environmental and human-made drivers of infection; the heterogeneity in outbreak signatures implies the potential traveling waves outwards from the core regional hotspot that could be governed by factors that deserve further investigation.

Covert Israeli Intervention in the Yemeni Civil War between 1964 and 1966

Covert Israeli Intervention in the Yemeni Civil War between 1964 and 1966

Deterrence through Diplomacy: Oman's Dialogue Facilitation Initiatives during the Yemeni Civil War

In contrast to other states in the Gulf Cooperation Council, Oman has declined to participate in the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen and has opted to facilitate dialogue between the conflict's warring parties. Oman has embraced a strategy of diplomatic deterrence in Yemen, facilitating dialogue to counter the perceived threats that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates pose to its foreign policy independence. The article explores how the Sultanate's diplomatic deterrence strategy manifests at the local, regional, and international levels, building on English- and Arabic-language source material and interviews.

The morality of substitution intervention: The case of Yemen

Throughout the Yemeni Civil War, western states have supplied weapons used in the indiscriminate bombing campaign conducted by the Saudis. In defence of their actions, British politicians have argued that they are exchanging weapons for influence, and using the influence obtained to encourage compliance with humanitarian law. An additional premise in the argument is that Britain is using its influence more benignly than alternative suppliers would use theirs if Britain were not on the scene. The idea is that Britain is substituting itself for other, less scrupulous, interveners. I argue that, regardless of whether British substitution intervention could be justified in this way…, it is not in fact justified, because Britain has not plausibly used its influence to secure an amount of good sufficient to offset the various harms that its actions have created (or to discharge the expanded duties of rescue that greater influence entails). In addition, the article identifies the various forms that substitution intervention can take, and shows how the concept reveals hitherto neglected reasons to both support and oppose intervention in foreign conflicts.

From Fragile to Collapsed Statehood: The Case of the Republic of Yemen (1990-2020)

The unification of the two Yemeni states?the northern Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) and the southern People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY), respectively?in 1990 has been a resounding failure. Merging the tribal-dominated northern and state-party dominated southern regimes meant increasing the number of factions competing for access to state resources to satisfy material and security needs of their respective networks of influence. In particular, efforts at growing the resource base of the unified state after 1990, by means of an expansion of oil and gas exploration and extraction, raised the revenue base of the state in an unsustainable manner. Such growth in national oil and gas rents increased rather than decreased competition over state authority to control the spoils. The major subsequent events, such as the 1994 civil war, the 2004-2010 “Saada wars” against the Houthi movement, the Yemeni version of the “Arab Spring” in 2011, the failure of the National Dialogue Conference (March 2013-January 2014), and the start of the Saudi and Emirati bombing campaign and subsequent ground war in Yemen since March 2015 all triggered major clashes between different factions of the Yemeni state bureaucracy, army, and civil society. On each of these occasions, efforts to freeze out some Yemeni actors produced escalating conflict between the remaining factions instead of a winning coalition that could have reestablished a degree of stability. The article explains how local, regional, and global factors have jointly overwhelmed the Yemeni actors, and how foreign intervention has led to the further deterioration of the pre-existing national crisis.

An analysis of compounding factors of epidemics in complex emergencies: a system dynamics approach

PurposeThis study aims to describe the compounding factors in a complex emergency, which exacerbate a cholera epidemic among vulnerable populations due to supply chain disruptions. Basic needs such as food, medicine, water, sanitation and hygiene commodities are critical to reduce the incidence rate of cholera and control the spread of infection. Conflicts cause damage to infrastructure, displace vulnerable populations and restrict the flow of goods from both commercial and humanitarian organizations. This study assesses the underlying internal and external factors that either aggravate or mitigate the risk of a cholera outbreak in such settings, using Yemen as a case study.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a system dynamics methodology to analyze factors that influence cholera outbreaks in the context of the Yemeni Civil War. A causal loop diagram with multiple components was constructed to represent the complexities of humanitarian situations that require critical decision-making. The model was built using data from humanitarian organizations, non-governmental organizations and practitioners, along with literature from academic sources. Variables in the model were confirmed through semi-structured interviews with a field expert.FindingsCompounding factors that influenced the cholera outbreak in Yemen are visualized in a causal loop diagram, which can improve the understanding of relationships where numerous uncertainties exist. A strong link exists between humanitarian response and the level of infrastructure development in a country. Supply chains are affected by constraints deriving from the Yemeni conflict, further inhibiting the use of infrastructure, which limits access to basic goods and services. Aligning long-term development objectives with short-term humanitarian response efforts can create more flexible modes of assistance to prevent and control future outbreaks.Research limitations/implicationsThe model focuses on the qualitative aspects of system dynamics to visualize the logistics and supply chain-related constraints that impact cholera prevention, treatment and control through humanitarian interventions. The resulting causal loop diagram is bounded by the Yemen context; thus, an extension of the model adapted for other contexts is recommended for further study.Practical implicationsThis study presents a systematic view of dynamic factors existing in complex emergencies that have cause-and-effect relationships. Several models of cholera outbreaks have been used in previous studies, primarily focusing on the modes and mechanisms of transmission throughout a population. However, such models typically do not include other internal and external factors that influence the population and context at the site of an outbreak. This model incorporates those factors from a logistics perspective to address the distribution of in-kind goods and cash and voucher assistance.Social implicationsThis study has been aligned with six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using their associated targets in the model as variables that influence the cholera incidence rate. Recognizing that the SDGs are interlinked, as are the dynamic factors in complex humanitarian emergencies, the authors have chosen to take an interdisciplinary approach to consider social, economic and environmental factors that may be impacted by this research.Originality/valueThis paper provides an insight into the underlying inter-relations of internal and external factors present in the context of a cholera outbreak in a complex crisis. Supply chains for food; water, sanitation and hygiene; and health products are crucial to help prevent, control and treat an outbreak. The model exposes vulnerabilities in the supply chain, which may offer guidance for decision makers to improve resilience, reduce disruptions and decrease the severity of cholera outbreaks.

Diversifying relationships: Russian policy toward GCC

The interaction between Russia and Gulf countries represents the story of ups and downs, severe conflicts and sharp warmings that can largely be explained by the permanently changing role and place of each of these players at the global and Middle Eastern political arenas. After Russia's “return” to the Middle East in 2012–2015, Moscow's foreign policy towards the Gulf can be explained in terms of a bargaining strategy. On the one hand, Russia is trying to underline its importance and relevance to the GCC by putting forward diplomatic and political initiatives. The Kremlin uses its direct or indirect presence in the key regional conflicts such as the Syrian, Libyan and Yemeni civil wars as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iran’s nuclear issue. On the other hand, Russia is interested in building up stronger economic cooperation with the GCC, drawing bigger volumes of investments from the Gulf to Russia’s broken economy, as well as coordinating efforts with Saudi Arabia in the global oil market. While, in the near future, the qualitative evolution of Russia’s relations with the GCC is hardly possible, there are still options for their deepening within the current level of interaction between Moscow and the Gulf.

Management of maxillofacial injuries among child and adolescent victims during Yemeni civil conflict: experience from a tertiary referral center in Najran, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Management of maxillofacial injuries among child and adolescent victims during Yemeni civil conflict: experience from a tertiary referral center in Najran, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

United Nations Peacekeeping Missions and the Intervention in the Yemeni Civil War (1963-1964)

"The tumultuous 1960s brought a multitude of inter- and intrastatal conflicts in international relations. Some of them derived from extinguished disputes as a subsequent effect of the decolonisation, while others were motivated by the aggressive intentions of states to conquer other states. An example was the Yemeni Civil War (1962–1970) which came in the spotlight of the international community because two neighbours countries, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Republic involved in the internal fight. The external involvement motivated and set the scene for the United Nations Organization to intervene and mobilise a peacekeeping operation which had to observe the withdrawal of the third parties and eventually facilitate the peace process. The study aims to analyze the UN peacekeeping mechanism, which is seen as a compromise created by the bipolarization of the international system that prevented the organization from fulfilling its task of keeping the international peace. Through the case study on the Yemeni peacekeeping operation which operated from 1963 to 1964, one could learn about how UN functioned during the Cold War years, what were the underlining processes supporting the authorization process of such an operation, about the contribution of the Secretary General to the functioning of the peacekeeping mechanism and lastly how the events in Yemen underlined the impact that the interests of involved actors had on the fulfillment of the given mandate of the UN operations."