Current Analysis Plain Old Murder Drones are President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice in the war on terror. Since taking office, he has ordered over 280 drone strikes in Pakistan alone. That’s more than eight times as many as George W. Bush authorized and doesn’t even count the scores of other unmanned attacks in Somalia and Yemen Chris Toensing • 2 min read
MER Article Revolution in Socotra At the beginning of 2012, as Egyptians and Syrians marked the second year of their revolts, protesters also took to the streets of Hadiboh, the tumbledown capital of Yemen’s Socotra archipelago (pop. approx. 50,000). Like demonstrators elsewhere, the Socotrans were calling for both local administrat Nathalie Peutz • 18 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Summer 2012) According to data collected by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Yemen has been struck more than 40 times by US drones -- perhaps twice as often as Pakistan -- in 2012 so far. On April 25, the New York Times reported a White House directive to CIA and military drone The Editors • 3 min read
Current Analysis Meanwhile, in Yemen... War is breaking out between the Yemeni military and a group called “Ansar al-Shari‘a” in the southern province of Abyan -- and it is in danger of spreading. Somewhere between 100 and 200 soldiers are being buried after battles [http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jVSJakuO6RiI-f26iNrwp Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis Ask Katy Perry Will he stay or will he go? Yemenis and Yemen watchers have been wondering for nearly a year, since the mass uprising against President ‘Ali ‘Abdallah Salih began, whether he would entrench or decamp. Sheila Carapico • 2 min read
Current Analysis Tawakkul Karman as Cause and Effect Political activist Tawakkul Karman has brought Yemen’s revolution to New York, speaking directly on October 20 with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and organizing rallies at the United Nations headquarters in lower Manhattan, the largest of which is slated for the afternoon of October 21. The purpose Stacey Philbrick Yadav • 9 min read
Current Analysis No Exit A venal dictatorship three decades old, mutinous army officers, dissident tribal sheikhs, a parliamentary opposition coalition, youthful pro-democracy activists, gray-haired Socialists, gun-toting cowboys, veiled women protesters, northern carpetbaggers, Shi‘i insurgents, tear gas canisters, leaked Sheila Carapico • 14 min read
Current Analysis No Pink Slip for Salih With cameras and Twitter feeds trained on Tahrir Square in Cairo, a series of large opposition protests have unfolded in an eponymous square in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, as well as other major cities across the country. The protests have been organized and coordinated by a cross-ideological amalg Stacey Philbrick Yadav • 13 min read
MER Article The Snake with a Thousand Heads In the summer of 2007, a lively and non-violent movement sprang up in the southern provinces of Yemen to protest the south’s marginalization by the north. The movement was sparked by demonstrations held that spring by forcibly retired members of the army, soon to be accompanied by retired state offi Susanne Dahlgren • 14 min read
MER Article Water Conflict and Cooperation in Yemen Yemen is one of the oldest irrigation civilizations in the world. For millennia, farmers have practiced sustainable agriculture using available water and land. Through a myriad of mountain terraces, elaborate water harvesting techniques and community-managed flood and spring irrigation systems, the Gerhard Lichtenthaeler • 11 min read
MER Article Does a Vote Equal a Voice? In a second-floor classroom overlooking a flowering courtyard filled with groups of students sharing textbooks and snacks, a young Yemeni woman in her late teens says simply: “[No political party] cares about us, or about the country.” The “us” to whom she refers are the other young women in the roo Stacey Philbrick Yadav • 15 min read
Current Analysis The Election Yemen Was Supposed to Have It was supposed to be the election that changed everything. The “90 percent presidency,” wherein the incumbent of 28 years won successive terms in office by laughably large margins, would be relegated to the past. Instead, a more credible accounting of the popular will would prove to Western governm Gregory Johnsen • 10 min read
