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 h...