When the Houthis seized Sanaa last fall, I published a collection of links of useful articles by academics which had thoroughly anticipated the fundamental shortcomings of the National Dialogue process, the fracturing of Yemeni state institutions, and the rising power of both the Houthi and the southern insurrections. With the Houthi move south, the flight of ex-President Hadi, and the launch of a Saudi-led military campaign, Yemen's long predicted new crisis has now entered an even more dangerous phase.
There were never any illusions in the academic or Yemen policy community about the limitations of the so-called Yemen model, especially the exclusion of youth activists and marginalized communities from the National Dialogue, the Gulf Cooperation Council's imposition of a top-down, largely anti-democratic transition process, and -- above all -- the immunity granted to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Their analysis has been overwhelmingly, depressingly, vindicated by the recent turn of events, and also deeply complicates the popular but simplistic sectarian narratives of Sunni resistance to Iranian expansionism. Today, an equally robust consensus has quickly emerged among Yemen analysts that the Saudi-led military campaign is likely to badly backfire, one which is likely to be just as ignored to equally negative effect.
Below is an updated collection of useful links and analysis, which may be useful to those trying to make sense of the current stage of Yemen's crisis.
POMEPS Briefing #19 Yemen's National Dialogue: collection of essays by leading academics and analysts, including Danya Greenfield, Holger Albrecht, April Alley, Stephen Day, Peter Salisbury, Stacey Philbrick Yadav, Silvana Toska, Adam Baron, Lisa Wedeen and more.
April Alley, "The Huthis: From Sadaa to Sanaa." Crisis Group.
Stephen Day, "What's behind Yemen's recent political turmoil" The Monkey Cage
Stacey Philbrick Yadav and Sheila Carapico, "The Breakdown of the GCC Initiative in Yemen" Middle East Report
Stacey Philbrick Yadav, "The limits of the sectarian framing in Yemen." The Monkey Cage.
Silvana Toska, "Shifting balances of power in Yemen's crisis." The Monkey Cage.
Peter Salisbury, "Yemen and the Saudi-Iranian Cold War", ECFR
Gabriele vom Bruck, "Yemeni Political Dialogue in Riyadh" Middle East Report
Susanne Dahlgren, "Four Weddings and a Funeral in Yemen" Middle East Report
Adam Baron, "What we got wrong in Yemen (and why foreign intervention would be the worst course", Politico
Gregory Johnsen, "Yemen past the point of peaceful return" Buzzfeed
Stacey Philbrick Yadav, "Yemen's Houthis and Islamist Republicanism under strain" The Monkey Cage
Charles Shmitz, "The Huthi Ascent to Power." Middle East Institute.
Iona Craig, "What the Huthi takeover of Sanaa reveals about Yemen's politics" Al-Jazeera America.
Peter Salisbury, "Yemen's Huthis redraw political map, upend transition." World Politics Review.
I'll update this list as appropriate, with a + to indicate the new ones!
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