Yemen and the Search for Stability: Power, Politics and Society After the Arab Spring (Library of Modern Middle East Studies Book 183)

"The attacks and blockade on Yemen by the Saudi-led multinational coalition have killed thousands and triggered humanitarian disaster. The longstanding conflict in the country between the Huthi rebels and (until December 2017) Salih militias on the one side and those loyal to the internationally recognized government and many other groups fighting for their interests on the other are said to have evolved into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In 2011, however, thousands of Yemenis had taken to the streets to protest for a better future for their country. When President Ali Abdullah Salih signed over power in the aftermath of these protests, there were hopes that this would signal the beginning of a new period of transition. Yemen and the Search for Stability focuses on the aspirations that inspired revolutionary action, and analyzes what went wrong in the years that followed. It examines the different groups involved in the protests - Salih supporters, Muslim Brothers, Salafis, Huthis, secessionists, women, youth, artists and intellectuals- in terms of their competing visions for the country's future as well as their internal struggles. This book traces the impact of the 2011 upheavals on these groups' ideas for a 'new Yemen' and on their strategies for self-empowerment. In so doing, Yemen and the Search for Stability examines the mistakes committed in the country's post-2011 transition process but also points towards prospects for stability and positive change."--Bloomsbury Publishing Cover Author Biography Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgements and Note on Transcription List of Abbreviations Introduction: Yemen and the Search for Stability Part I. Competing Visions: Yemen’s Imagined Futures 1. Scepticism among Emerging Public Intellectuals in Post-Revolution Yemen 2. A Political Culture of Feminist Resistance: Exploring Women’s Agency and Gender Dynamics in Yemen’s Uprising (2011–15) 3. The Mobilization of Yemen’s Eastern Tribes: Al-Mahra’s Self-Organization Model 4. Generational and Political Change in Southern Yemen: “The Generation of Unity” Envisions its Southern State Part II Transition and Its Discontents: Visions and Strategies of Yemen’s Political Actors 5. Governance in Transition: The Dynamics of Yemen’s Negotiated Reform Process 6. Negotiating Women’s Empowerment in the NDC 7. The Huthi Enigma: Ansar Allah and the “Second Republic” 8. Reversals of Fortune: The Islah Party in Post-Salih Yemen 9. A Party for Salafis?: The Building of al-Rashad in Yemen’s Transition Period Part III Socio-Cultural Upheavals: Yemen Before and After the Arab Spring 10. A Youth Non-Movement in Sanaʿa: Changing Normative Geographies through Fashion, Art and Music 11. Can We Talk to Terrorists?: Extremism and the Potential for Dialogue, as Portrayed in Yemeni Film and Theatre 12. Can the “Old Yemen” Survive the “New Yemen”?: The Depredations of War and Other Threats to Yemen’s Cultural Heritage 13. Can Federalism Save the Yemeni State? About the Authors Index Yemen in the twenty-first century is a country which is enormously unstable. With the former president Ali Abdullah Salih signing over power in the aftermath of eleven months of protest in November 2011, there were hopes that this would signal the beginning of a new period of transition. But with the resurgence of Huthi rebel groups in early 2015, it is apparent that instability will continue to plague the country. Building the New Yemen focuses on how a variety of political, social and cultural actors (such as Muslim Brothers, Salafis, Huthis, secessionists, women, youth and Islamic minorities) are finding a way to make their demands heard amidst the cacophony of multiple demands on the Yemeni state. By examining a variety of issues within political, social and cultural spheres, this book offers in-depth analysis of the current turmoil, as well the prospects for stability, in the 'new Yemen'