Yemen - a catch all thread for 2007-2011

[SWJED]

Moderator's note 31/12/09: new thread for Yemen created, merging several old threads to give background to a country that is expected to feature more in 2010.


27 May LA Times - Modern Yemen Embraces the Tribe by Megan Stack.

... Pervasive and often overlooked by outsiders, the ancient network of tribes remains one of the most potent forces in the Middle East. The tribes are older than the nations and borders that carve up the Arab world, older than the oil industry, older than the governments in the United States or Europe. They are an older — and, some believe, an even stronger — social force than Islam.

Rather than withering away as the Arab world succumbs to modernity, tribes are only getting more powerful. Weak central governments, civil war in Iraq, an identity crisis born of the clash between modernity and tradition — all of these factors have fortified the role of the tribes...