Geopolitical Scale and the Yemen Civil War

Earlier this week, Houthi separatists in Yemen stuck several energy centers across three towns in Saudi Arabia, leading the Saudi Foreign Ministry to release a statement saying, “This will [affect] the kingdom’s production capacity and its ability to fulfill its commitments, which no doubt will threaten the safety and stability of energy supply to the global markets.” (Dadouch, 2022). The civil war in Yemen and the conflict between Houthi separatists and the Saudi government is the perfect example of geopolitical notions of scale.

In Yemen, 65% of citizens identify as Sunni muslim and 35% are Shiite, most of whom belong specifically to the Zaydi school of theology (CIA World Factbook). The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, are an islamist group in northwestern Yemen who, since 2014, have been leading an armed rebellion against the secular post-unification government-in-exile led by the General People’s Congress (GPC) (Council on Foreign Relations, 2022). This conflict has effectively led to a return to the Cold War-era bifurcation of Yemen, with the former territories of the American-aligned Yemen Arab Republic being controlled by the Houthi rebels, and the territories of the Soviet-aligned former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (1967-1990) under the control of the GPC/Cabinet of Yemen.


North and South Yemen, pre-unification

Map of the Yemen Civil War; Houthi controlled areas are green, areas controlled by the Cabinet of Yemen/GPC are red, and areas controlled by the Southern Transitional Council are olive.

Despite being a national religious conflict between a minoritarian, Shiite separatist group and the larger, mostly secular Sunni majority, this conflict is also seen by many as a proxy war between the Sunni Saudi Arabia and the Shi’a Iran, as the Houthis are closely allied with Iran and the GPC is currently and has historically had a strong relationship with the Saudi monarchy (BBC, 2022). Furthermore, due to the Houthi alignment with Iran, rebels often attack Saudi territories that border Northern Yemen, as seen in this recent strike on Saudi energy centers. These attacks in turn affect the global economy by increasing the price of oil (Dadouch) - Saudi Arabia is the third largest oil producing nation in the world, and the west, particularly the United States, which receives 8% of its crude oil imports from Saudi sources (EIA, 2022).

Finally, this conflict has had a profound effect on the Yemeni people on a local scale. Due to the Saudi-led intervention and subsequent blockade of Yemeni ports, 80% of the population has been undergoing a famine classified as IPC 3 (acute)/ICP 4 (humanitarian) crisis (IPC, 2021). According to the Global Hunger Index, wasting in children under 5 has increased from 13.3% to 15.5% over the course of the famine, and stunting has increased from 46.6% to 53.2% when compared with pre-war Yemen in 2010 (GHI, 2020).


"Saleh is four months old and severely malnourished. His 22-year-old mother, Nora, already has five children -- the first was born when she was just 12, after a forced marriage at the age of 11." (CNN)




References

BBC. (2022, March 22). Yemen: Why is the war there getting more violent? BBC News. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29319423

Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/yemen/#people-and-society

Clarke, G. (n.d.). Saleh is four months old and severely malnourished. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/21/world/gallery/yemen-civil-war-malnutrition/index.html.

Council on Foreign Relations. (n.d.). War in Yemen | global conflict tracker. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-yemen

Global hunger index (GHI) . Global Hunger Index (GHI) - peer-reviewed annual publication designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.globalhungerindex.org/

Map of the Yemen Civil War. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Yemeni_Civil_War.svg/1599px-Yemeni_Civil_War.svg.png?20211119211840.

North and South Yemen. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Divided_Yemen.svg/1200px-Divided_Yemen.svg.png.

U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - independent statistics and analysis. Oil imports and exports - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/imports-and-exports.php#:~:text=Saudi%20Arabia%2C%20the%20largest%20OPEC,imports%20from%20Persian%20Gulf%20countries.

Yemen: Acute malnutrition January - July 2020 and projections for August - December 2020 and January - March 2021 : IPC Global Platform. IPC Portal. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1153006/?iso3=YEM


Article chosen for review: "Saudi Arabia says it can’t be held responsible for oil shortages after Houthis attack energy facilities" by Sarah Dadouch (2022) for the Washington Post. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/21/saudi-arabia-oil-shortages-houthi-attacks/

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