Publications

News July 24, 2016 01:15 MIN THE SANA’A CENTER CONDEMNS THE ARREST OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MAGED AL-MADHAJI On the morning of July 24, 2016, the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies’ Executive Director, Maged Al-Madhaji, was arrested at his home by security forces loyal to the Houthi rebel movement. Madhaji, one of Yemen's most prominent intellectuals, was taken to Al-Wahda police station and interrogated, before being released later in the day. This is not the first time members of the Sana’a Center have been subjected to threats, intimidation, and arrest by various parties to the current conflict in Yemen. Madhaji himself had been warned by the Houthis on July 22 not to leave his home, and had previously been arrested by the group in 2015. Today's events are the latest in a series of actions by armed groups… Continue reading The Yemen Review July 11, 2016 05:28 MIN Yemen at the UN – June 2016 June 2016 in review United Nations efforts to bring about a cessation of the conflict in Yemen witnessed limited progress in June, and were marked by setbacks and controversies. It is uncertain whether any major breakthroughs will be achieved in the near term. That being said, the UN continued to play a role in a number of conflict-related issues, such as prisoner exchanges, facilitating commercial imports and confidence building measures between the belligerent parties. On June 30th, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, adjourned the two month long peace-talks between the main warring parties in Yemen. These parties are constituted by the forces fighting on behalf of the internationally recognized government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur… Continue reading Main Publications May 30, 2016 12:05 MIN The politics driving Yemen’s rising sectarianism By Farea Al-Muslimi And Adam Baron The current armed conflict in Yemen began, essentially, as a domestic struggle for power between political and tribal factions. This reality ran contrary to the conventional narrative in the international news media that Yemen was another sectarian arena in the proxy war between the Middle East’s two great Sunni and Shia rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran, respectively. With the intensification of violence, however, and especially since the Saudi-led coalition began its military intervention in Yemen in March 2015, the rhetoric espoused by the warring parties has taken on an increasingly acerbic sectarian tone. This has become a key feature in the country’s collective discourse: sectarian slurs that were once the exclusive domain of extremist groups have become… Continue reading Main Publications May 19, 2016 18:12 MIN How Yemen’s post-2011 transitional phase ended in war By Maged Al-Madhaji The Gulf Cooperation Council and the international community brought together Yemen’s various political power brokers in 2011 to help end the crisis the country had entered following the so-called “Arab Spring” uprisings. These negotiations resulted in an agreement that became known as the GCC Initiative, which ushered Yemen into a “transitional phase”. This period was intended to pave the way for a peaceful transfer of power away from President Ali Abdullah Saleh, address citizen demands for democratic reform and transitional justice, empower the Yemeni state, curb the use of violence by political actors and prevent a return to authoritarianism. While the GCC Initiative was effective in achieving short-term stability, flaws in the agreement and the actions of local power brokers… Continue reading Analysis May 15, 2016 04:12 MIN Beware of the failure of Yemen’s central bank For the past 18 months, Yemen has been going through one of the most chaotic times of its modern history. Since the Houthi takeover of the capital, Sanaa, on Sept. 21, 2014, the country has been witnessing a gradual collapse of the state, which was accelerated when President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi left Sanaa for Aden and then for Riyadh. By March 2015, the Houthi rebel group was the de facto power running the country. As the war continues, most of the country’s public institutions are barely functioning. The health sector cannot provide for the wounded and the sick with three doctors per 10,000 people, while 14 million people need help accessing health care. Education in schools and universities has… Continue reading Analysis March 3, 2016 05:15 MIN How US counterterror strategy has crashed and burned in Yemen – and what to try instead By Farea Al-Muslimi And Larry Attree After 15 years of US efforts to combat terror and achieve stability in Yemen, a new study by Saferworld concludes that these efforts—as in the cases of Afghanistan and Somalia—have badly backfired. Today, Yemen requires not more military intervention, but strategies to counter corrupt and abusive government and to show its people that their security and rights matter. Feeding off deep public resentment of an abusive and corrupt state, Houthi rebels and other militants have taken charge of large swathes of Yemen. With the country locked in a brutal civil war that has drawn in regional powers, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula remains strong and the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) launched several bloody attacks in Yemen… Continue reading Main Publications February 25, 2016 11:51 MIN The imminent critical threats to the Yemeni riyal and government institutions By Mansour Rageh In whatever post-conflict scenario eventually prevails in Yemen, the domestic currency and the institutions of state will be essential to the rebuilding process. To date, both have persevered despite the enormous pressure of a vicious civil war and foreign bombing campaign. The Central Bank of Yemen’s actions have successfully protected the value of the Yemeni riyal against the American dollar – essential in a country that imports 90% of its food requirements – while the central government, which even at the best of times held tenuous authority over large swathes of the country, has managed to keep the structures of its institutions intact by operating them at a minimum capacity. None of the local, regional and international stakeholders in Yemen… Continue reading Analysis January 8, 2016 07:43 MIN Geography of War and Agriculture in Yemen By Farea Al-Muslimi Why is war a more common occurrence in some parts of Yemen than in others? Why do cities like Aden recover quickly from wars? And why do their youth rush to clean up streets and restore normalcy? Why do wars quickly cease in cities like Taiz and Ibb, but are quick to flare up over and over around Sanaa? It is basically a matter of the economy. In the tribal North, where a war economy prevails, tribes thrive on conflicts. This contrasts sharply with the peasant tribes of central and southern Yemen that rely on an agriculture-based economy. In other words, war in Taiz hampers the agricultural economy and brings the lives of farmers to a grinding halt, while the… Continue reading Main Publications November 5, 2015 11:03 MIN Yemen’s economic collapse and impending famine: The necessary immediate steps to avoid worst-case scenarios By Farea Al-Muslimi, and Mansour Rageh As a result of ongoing civil war and the Saudi-led military intervention, normal economic activity in Yemen has ground to a halt and the country now faces the real prospect of famine. Revenues from oil exports, which previously accounted for roughly 70% of Yemen’s national budget, have stopped completely. The country’s electricity production has become anaemic, which, coupled which a nationwide fuel shortage, has led to dozens of major factories and hundreds of smaller ones closing down, putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work. Most foreign companies and international organizations have suspended operations and have withdrawn both capital and personnel. Yemeni purchasing power is vanishing in concert with the skyrocketing cost of imports, a disaster in a country… Continue reading News October 31, 2015 01:45 MIN SANA’A CENTER CONDEMNS DEPORTATION OF ITS RESEARCHERS FROM BAHRAIN The Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies strongly condemns the deportation of two of its researchers, Farea al-Muslimi and Sama’a al-Hamdani from Bahrain. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) invited Hamdani and Muslimi as independent Yemen specialists to participate in this weekend’s Manama Dialogue (October 30-31). Despite being granted visas from Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, Muslimi and Hamdani were unable to attend the Manama Dialogue, as their visas were revoked early Friday morning. Hamdani was turned back at Bahrain International Airport, despite holding a valid visa. She was kept in the airport for 10 hours. Muslimi, already inside Bahrain, was attending a conference workshop when he was informed by Bahraini authorities that he was no longer welcome in the country. He… Continue reading News September 19, 2015 01:07 MIN Sana’a Center Condemns arrest of its Executive Director, Maged Al-Madhaji, along with other civil society activists The Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies (SCSS) strongly condemns the detention of its Executive Director, Maged Al-Madhaji, by armed forces loyal to the Houthi rebel movement. On Saturday morning, September 19th, Madhaji was arrested at a protest demanding freedom for Yemenis held extrajudicially by the Houthis and their allies, along with journalist Mahmoud Yassin , Bassim Al-Warafi and the founders of Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, Radhya Al-Mutawakel and Abdulrasheed Al-Faqih. Mutawakel has been released. Regretfully, the rest remain in detention. Today's arrests of civil society activists constitute the latest in a series of blatant civil liberty violations that have seen armed groups in Yemen attempt to silence dissident voices in the country. These crackdowns--in addition to the ongoing military… Continue reading Main Publications September 16, 2015 05:49 MIN United States Policy & Yemen’s Armed Conflict Researchers & Organizations: The Yemen Peace Project (YPP) Resonate! Yemen Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies In March of this year, long-simmering regional and political tensions exploded into a full-fledged armed conflict in Yemen, with the Houthi movement and military forces loyal to former president ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Saleh fighting for control of the country’s major cities and key provinces. Arrayed against the Houthi-Saleh alliance are local militias allied with President ‘Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and his government-in-exile, a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, armed elements of the Southern Movement (al-Hirak), army units tied to General ‘Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar and the Islah Party, several powerful tribes, and an assortment of salafi and jihadi factions.… Continue reading