Publications

Yemen Review section April 18, 2025 03:51 MIN January-March 2025 In Dealing with the Houthis, US Diplomacy is the Silver Bullet By Abdulghani Al-Iryani Ever since the Houthis started disrupting commercial marine traffic through the Red Sea in late 2023, calls for the use of force have been sounded from every corner of the anti-Houthi camp. The Yemeni government has advocated for international military action, while UAE-sponsored armed groups have hinted at their willingness to spearhead an international offensive against the Houthis. Clearly, none of these parties learned the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan. Civil wars are not settled by foreign intervention. At best, foreign forces can tip the balance in favor of their domestic allies, but more often than not, they merely prolong the conflict, fuel the war economy, exacerbate the bloodshed, and then withdraw in a hurry, leaving local partners to their… Continue reading Analysis April 18, 2025 03:39 MIN Strategic Hedging: Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman’s Visit to Tehran By Hussam Radman All eyes were on the Iranian capital, Tehran, where Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman arrived on April 17. His visit, during which he was accompanied by several other senior Saudi officials, including Mohammed al-Jaber, the Saudi Ambassador to Yemen, is the most significant development in Saudi-Iranian relations since the China-brokered rapprochement between the two countries in 2023. Prince Khalid’s trip signals a qualitative shift in Saudi Arabia’s approach to its regional relationships, particularly with its long-time rival, Iran. On a historical level, the symbolism of the visit is unmistakable. Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, only one Saudi defense minister has visited Iran—Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz in 1999. That visit produced two major outcomes: an unprecedented visit by… Continue reading Editorial April 17, 2025 03:51 MIN January-March 2025 Yemen’s Fragile Stalemate is Starting to Crack The war in Yemen has entered a new, uncertain phase. Over seven years of fighting came to a relative halt in 2022 with a UN-backed truce that cemented the stalemate on the ground. Subsequent Saudi-Houthi talks to normalize ties and launch a Yemeni-Yemeni peace process were upended by the Houthis’ response to the Gaza war, as the group began launching drone and missile attacks on Israel and shipping in the Red Sea. Now, US President Donald Trump has returned to office guns blazing, relaunching the Biden administration’s anti-Houthi military campaign with a gusto that has raised the hopes of some parties that the rebel group could be brought to its knees. But even if Houthi power survives intact, the consequences… Continue reading Analysis March 28, 2025 13:05 MIN Leaked Texts and Limited Strategy: The US Strikes in Yemen By Ned Whalley “This [is] not about the Houthis.” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, March 2025. Recently leaked US attack plans, shared inadvertently with Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, were startling not just in their disclosure but in what they disclosed – that the Trump administration may have no intermediate or long-term plan for how to deal with the Houthis. Rather, the airstrikes appear intended simply to reassert American power, with little concern for their potential to escalate Yemen’s civil war, the security risks this would produce, or the humanitarian toll it would exact. The American strategy risks failing on its own terms. Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are less an act of solidarity with the Palestinians than an exercise in propaganda,… Continue reading Publications March 19, 2025 11:28 MIN Ten Takeaways from YIF III More than 300 participants gathered in Amman from February 16-19 to attend the highly anticipated third Yemen International Forum, the largest annual gathering focused on peace-building in Yemen. Over the course of three days, Yemeni political leaders, tribal figures, women, minorities, youth, and civil society activists, alongside regional and international actors, UN representatives, and experts, engaged in candid and, at times, difficult discussions aimed at restoring peace and stability in Yemen and preventing further escalation of conflict. The optimism for a peace settlement that characterized the first two YIF forums, held in Stockholm (2022) and the Hague (2023), had been tempered by the Red Sea crisis and Yemen’s involvement in wider regional conflict. The Forum provided the first opportunity for… Continue reading Main Publications March 19, 2025 04:48 MIN Impact Assessment of Aid Interventions in Yemen By Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf In aid work, traditional monitoring and evaluation (M&E) processes frequently place a high priority on quantitative indicators and short-term project outcomes. This results in a cursory grasp of the impact of these projects rather than an understanding of the real and long-lasting changes or advantages experienced by beneficiaries and their communities. Furthermore, there is a limited understanding of the complex effects on communities because standard M&E frameworks frequently lack meaningful metrics of stakeholder participation. This research proposes a novel impact evaluation metric, the Genuine Score of Impact (GSI), for assessing aid programs, which is being piloted through a case-study methodology. Through evaluating the impact of aid interventions in Yemen’s Lahj and Marib governorates, the framework examines perceived material wealth, social… Continue reading Main Publications March 18, 2025 14:57 MIN Renewed US Bombing and Houthi FTO Designation Signal Shift in Yemen Conflict By Maged Al-Madhaji, Ned Whalley, Abdulghani Al-Iryani, Hussam Radman, and Salah Ali Salah US military forces recommenced strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 as part of a new pressure campaign against the group and its primary backer, Iran. The bombing campaign, which so far has killed a reported 53 people and wounded more than 100, followed a Houthi threat to resume attacks against Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea in response to Israel cutting off aid to Gaza. US airstrikes so far have been reported in Sana’a, Sa’ada, Al-Jawf, Marib, Dhamar, Hudaydah, Al-Bayda and Taiz governorates. US officials said the strikes would likely last several weeks. Meanwhile, the Houthis have claimed several attacks against US naval ships. Shortly following the US escalation in Yemen, Israel resumed major bombing in Gaza,… Continue reading Publications February 27, 2025 18:32 MIN Recovering from Attacks on Education in Yemen By Alexander Kochenburger Education is often one of the greatest casualties of war. In Yemen, this reality is borne out by the thousands of damaged and destroyed schools, tens of thousands of child soldiers, hundreds of thousands of teachers working without regular pay, and millions of students out of school. Mere numbers, however, are not sufficient to encapsulate the true toll. A generation of Yemenis have had their right to education and hope for a better future stripped away by airstrikes and fighting, by landmines and armed groups in and around their schools, and by beleaguered teachers presiding the best they can in over-crowded classrooms. This policy brief examines the effects of Yemen’s armed conflict on the country’s education system, focusing in particular… Continue reading News February 25, 2025 01:51 MIN The Future of Peace in Yemen is Green Amman and New York—A recent report released by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies and the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic highlights the immediate need to prioritize environmental and climate concerns in Yemen's transitional justice efforts. The report – Conflict and Climate: The Need for a Roadmap for Green Transitional Justice in Yemen – is based on interviews conducted inside Yemen and a global comparative analysis of other transitional justice processes. It argues that the intersections between armed conflict, environmental degradation, and climate change cannot be ignored. “In Yemen, where many people rely on the agricultural and fisheries sectors for livelihoods amid a severe water crisis, the impact of environmental damage caused by conflict is deeply felt,” explained Yasmeen… Continue reading News February 19, 2025 03:36 MIN YIF III Ends With A Plea Not To Give Up on Yemen Peace Process Amman, Jordan - The third Yemen International Forum (YIF) concluded on Tuesday with a call for international players not to give up on a political resolution in Yemen as it faces the risk of further military escalation and humanitarian suffering with new US sanctions coming into effect. Despite the rise in tensions over Gaza, a shaky ceasefire has remained intact since 2022. But there is fear of it unraveling, leading to a return of the Saudi-led war launched in 2015 to restore the internationally recognized government following a Houthi coup in northern Yemen. “We have long warned of the spillover of this conflict to international interests in the Red Sea and beyond, which is now a reality,” Sana’a Center Co-Executive… Continue reading News February 18, 2025 03:33 MIN Calls for Immediate Action on Transitional Justice on the Second Day of YIF III Amman, Jordan - Yemeni civil society needs to redouble efforts in addressing the thorny question of transitional justice before a formal peace process is finally launched, experts concluded at the third Yemen International Forum (YIF) on Monday. “It’s no longer just individuals who have been forcibly disappeared, but the country as a whole. Yemen and Yemenis are subject to cycles of violence, hateful rhetoric, incitement, sectarian and geographic discrimination,” said Assistant Secretary-General of the Nasserite Party and Deputy Head of Consultation and Reconciliation Commission Rana Ghanem during the afternoon plenary session on the second day of the YIF. “I don’t think we can wait for peace. There are a lot of forms of justice that can take place before Yemen… Continue reading Main Publications February 18, 2025 02:28 MIN Conflict and Climate: The Need for Green Transitional Justice in Yemen By The Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies and Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic Yemen is facing a severe environmental crisis, the effects of which, combined with climate change and a decade of conflict, have severely undermined Yemenis’ right to a dignified life. Over the last 50 years, Yemen's temperatures have increased by 1.8 degrees Celsius. The increase in heavy rains, floods, cyclones, and other environmental degradation have led to extensive displacement and significant losses in lives, livelihoods, land, and infrastructure. Rising temperatures, heat waves, and irregular rainfall have concurrently aggravated water shortages in one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, with approximately 14.5 million Yemenis lacking access to safe drinking water. As water scarcity increases, related conflicts… Continue reading