Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes
Once famous for its lucrative coffee trade and the strategically crucial port of Aden, Yemen - the dark horse of the Middle East - is making headlines today for its links with radical Islam. As journalist Victoria Clark argues in this riveting book, we have been neglecting Yemen at our peril. For centuries a thorn in the side of any foreign power seeking to exploit its valuable location, the most beautiful but also the poorest state in the Arab world is dominated by its tribal make-up,...
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Yemen is the dark horse of the Middle East. Every so often it enters the headlines for one alarming reason or another—links with al-Qaeda, kidnapped Westerners, explosive population growth—then sinks into obscurity again. But, as Victoria Clark argues in this riveting book, we ignore Yemen at our peril. The poorest state in the Arab world, it is still dominated by its tribal makeup and has become a perfect breeding ground for insurgent and terrorist movements.Clark returns to the country where she was born to discover a perilously fragile state that deserves more of our understanding and attention. On a series of visits to Yemen between 2004 and 2009, she meets politicians, influential tribesmen, oil workers and jihadists as well as ordinary Yemenis. Untangling Yemen’s history before examining the country’s role in both al-Qaeda and the wider jihadist movement today, Clark presents a lively, clear, and up-to-date account of a little-known state whose chronic instability is increasingly engaging the general reader. The Washington Post - Isobel Coleman Victoria Clark's Yemen combines a sweeping history of the country from the 16th century until today with a travelogue and journalistic ruminations…Clark is best when she focuses on the mix of unsavory characters jostling for power in Yemen today.
List of Illustrations viAcknowledgements ixIntroduction 1Part 1Chapter 1 Unwanted Visitors (1538-1918) 11Chapter 2 Revolutionary Roads (1918-1967) 46Chapter 3 Two Yemeni Republics (1967-1990) 89Chapter 4 A Shotgun Wedding (1990-2000) 130Part 2Chapter 5 First Generation Jihad 149Chapter 6 A Tribal Disorder? 177Chapter 7 Keeping Up With the Saudis 207Chapter 8 Al-Qaeda, plus Two Insurgencies 235Chapter 9 Can the Centre Hold? 260Afterword 284Notes 289Bibliography 299Index 305
\ Isobel ColemanVictoria Clark's Yemen combines a sweeping history of the country from the 16th century until today with a travelogue and journalistic ruminations…Clark is best when she focuses on the mix of unsavory characters jostling for power in Yemen today.\ —The Washington Post\ \
