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Analysis April 21, 2025 08:55 MIN January-March 2025 Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Yemeni Women in Diplomacy By Rim Mugahed, Hana’a Abdurabu, and Essa Al-Qadasy “Our main challenge as women in Yemen is simply the fact that we are women,” - Sahar Ghanem, Yemeni Ambassador to the Netherlands. “How can women have a strong presence [in diplomacy] when we aren’t in decision-making positions at all?” - Female Yemeni diplomat. The underrepresentation of women in Yemen’s political and public sphere existed before the war and has only worsened due to the ongoing conflict over the past decade. The Yemeni government formed as part of the Riyadh Agreement in 2020 did not include female ministers, marking the first time women had been entirely excluded from a cabinet in nearly two decades. In a context of escalating tension and polarization, this marginalization extends to all other structures, where… Continue reading Yemen Review section April 21, 2025 18:21 MIN January-March 2025 The Economy — The Yemen Review, January-March 2025 By Wadhah Al-Awlaqi, and Aylin Junga The first quarter of 2025 saw escalating US sanctions against the Houthis. The sanctions, intended to suffocate the Houthis financially, could have a negative impact on Yemen’s already fragile financial system, and threaten to disrupt flows of crucial humanitarian aid and remittances, further destabilizing the economy. In mid-January, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Yemen Kuwait Bank for Trade and Investment for providing financial support to the Houthis. OFAC accused the bank of allowing the Houthis to exploit the Yemeni banking sector to launder money and transfer funds to their allies, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The bank was also alleged to have helped the Houthis establish and finance front companies involved… 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 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 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 News February 17, 2025 02:58 MIN YIF III Launches in Amman with a Strong Call for a Peaceful and Stable Yemen Amid Regional Upheaval Amman, Jordan - Over 300 political representatives, policymakers, peace mediators, civil society members, and key figures from the international community gathered in Amman on Sunday to launch the third Yemen International Forum (YIF). Amidst major political shifts and geopolitical fragmentation affecting Yemen and the region in the aftermath of October 7, YIF III brings together invested parties to engage in constructive dialogue for a stable and secure Yemen. “The security of the region is contingent on the security of Yemen,” said Yemen’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Shayea Al-Zindani, in his opening remarks, urging more regional cooperation and engagement to end the war and achieve peace in Yemen. Making the stakes clear, Al-Zindani noted that “such efforts are consistently undermined… Continue reading Main Publications February 16, 2025 11:36 MIN Yemen International Forum III Background Dossier The Yemen International Forum (YIF) is the largest and most inclusive platform for policy dialogues related to Yemen's conflict and ongoing peace process. Unique in its approach, it serves as a continuous civil society-led peace initiative, providing a space for Yemeni, regional, and international engagement aimed at overcoming current crises and paving the way to a peaceful, prosperous, and just Yemen. Since its launch in 2022, the YIF has convened over 500 political representatives, policymakers, peace mediators, experts, and civil society representatives and contributed to multi-thematic peace initiatives, ranging from political and civic engagement to transitional justice, economic deescalation, and the environment-conflict nexus. As part of the YIF, consultations with Yemeni experts and stakeholders and extensive regional and international shuttle… Continue reading Analysis February 4, 2025 05:07 MIN October-December 2024 Will Al-Qaeda Change Tack After the Jihadist Victory in Syria? By Abdelrazzaq al-Jamal The sudden collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and rise to power of Islamists marks a pivotal turning point in the regional landscape. The new government is headed by the former rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, previously known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Before forming HTS, Al-Sharaa was a leading Al-Qaeda commander in Syria who had also fought in Iraq alongside radical figures such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. With his transformation into Syria’s head of state, he represents a new model of post-Al-Qaeda Islamism and raises fundamental questions about the group’s future direction. HTS’ unexpected success in Syria, after spending years holed up in the northern province of Idlib,… Continue reading Yemen Review section February 4, 2025 22:54 MIN October-December 2024 The Economy — The Yemen Review, October-December 2024 By Wadhah Al-Awlaqi, and Aylin Junga Yemen is experiencing a severe economic downturn as it tries to navigate long-term fiscal challenges. A World Bank report on Fiscal Vulnerabilities in Low-Income Countries released in late November highlighted Yemen’s dire fiscal situation as among the worst in the world. The World Bank’s Yemen Monitor for Spring 2024 noted that the current crisis is caused by plummeting oil and customs revenues, which had long been the backbone of Yemen’s economy. The government has also forcefully cut down fiscal expenditures, limiting the provision of essential services and jeopardizing sustainable economic development and growth. Despite attempts to address these challenges by centralizing financial control, the government’s fiscal health remains precarious. Many employees have received their salaries late. Limited Saudi support, tainted… Continue reading Main Publications January 6, 2025 31:12 MIN Mahrah University: Paving the Way for Workforce Transformation By Tawfeek Al-Ganad, and Lara Uhlenhaut For decades, Yemen’s higher education system has been characterized by a persistent mismatch between graduates’ skills and the changing requirements of the market. The last labor force survey carried out in 2014 showed that less than one-third of Yemen’s labor force had secondary or tertiary education, and a qualification mismatch was found among some 83 percent of the employed population. Yemen’s struggle to produce a skilled workforce can be attributed to many factors, including inflexible curriculums, outdated teaching methods, failure to adapt to technological advancements, and a lack of strategic vision for admissions and curriculum development. Undoubtedly, the historical absence of a unified and coordinated vision for higher education has been exacerbated by a decade-long war and its detrimental impact… Continue reading Main Publications December 9, 2024 29:01 MIN Rescuing Yemen’s Economy By Ned Whalley, and Wadhah Al-Awlaqi A political crisis has wracked the interim capital of Aden as the internationally recognized government struggles to deal with the plummeting Yemeni rial. The currency now trades at over YR2,000 to the dollar, having lost over a third of its value since the year began. Riven by political infighting and lacking the vision or tools to arrest the slide, an acute economic collapse appears imminent if significant and sustained financial support does not arrive. Both short- and long-term factors have put downward pressure on the currency. The roots of the problem are difficult to unpick from Yemen’s troubled pre-war economy, the stressors and destruction of the conflict, and the broader economic downturn that has accompanied it over the past decade,… Continue reading