Why is Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, involved in a costly and merciless war against its mountainous southern neighbor Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East? When the Saudis attacked the hitherto obscure Houthi militia, which they believed had Iranian backing, to oust Yemen's government in 2015, they expected an easy victory. They appealed for Western help and bought weapons worth billions of dollars from Britain and America; yet two years later the Houthis, a unique Shia sect, have the upper hand.

In her revealing portrait of modern Yemen, Ginny Hill delves into its recent history, dominated by the enduring and pernicious influence of career dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled for three decades before being forced out by street protests in 2011. Saleh masterminded patronage networks that kept the state weak, allowing conflict, social inequality and terrorism to flourish. In the chaos that follows his departure, civil war and regional interference plague the country while separatist groups, Al-Qaeda and ISIS compete to exploit the broken state. And yet, Yemen endures.

Author: Ginny Hill
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 09/01/2017
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.4lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.70w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9780190842369


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/22/2017
Choice 02/01/2018

About the Author
Ginny Hill is a visiting fellow in the Middle East Centre at the LSE who has covered Yemen for more than a decade as a journalist and policy advisor. She founded the Chatham House Yemen Forum and recently served on the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen. Hill has worked for al-Jazeera English, the BBC, Channel 4 News and ITV.