PRESS REVIEW

STATE AT RISK: THE CASE OF YEMEN

For some years, the situation in the Yemen worries States with the increase of the groups of Al Qaida. But how this country is depicted by the media? That’s what we will see through three articles of the Guardian, New York Times and Newsweek.

A political ground

Some as United States or United Kingdom see in the Yemen a country which would shelter terrorist cells. It is what that would legitimize a military action against this country. According to the New York Times, The U.S. military has launched missile attacks against al-Qaida targets inside Yemen's territory, with Saleh's full acquiescence. Despite the approval of Gordon Brown, reported by the Guardian, this military action is not to everyone’s taste.

An unnecessary expense

Indeed, the threat is exaggerated. Newsweek's Tim Fernholz discredits the idea that Yemen, as another terrorist safe haven like Afghanistan, is a threat. He writes: "With the costs of the already $68 billion-a-year Afghanistan conflict set to rise, it's time for the administration to rethink the balance of resources between military operations designed to shut down terrorist safe havens and the intelligence and law enforcement efforts that could have stopped the incident on Christmas."

A Fragile Nation

Nevertheless, Robert F.Worth, who led the investigation for the New York Times Magazine, prefers to see in Yemen its economic vulnerability. Through its report:   “The Next Afghanistan?” he shows how Yemen has since reunification in 1990 slowly pushed into the weakening economy. But mostly he analyzes how, to avoid every political protest, the leaders have played on tribal rivalries of the country. That ultimately “a feeble Yemen, overwhelmed by a rampant poverty, marked by exploitation of the tribal system, which is now ripe to fall into the clutches of al-Qaida”.

But Yemen is also part of the failed States. The Journal of American Foreign policy geopolitics has just published the rankings for this year. His situation is getting worse: while in 2007 it was ranked 24^th overall in failed States, he now ranks the 18^th place.

To conclude, in my opinion, that is in the political turmoil surrounding their embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, that many Yemeni soldiers have abandoned their posts, leaving the power vacuum filled by terrorists. But once the situation stabilized, what will happen to the country?

So the Yemen: potential foe or single victim of circumstances?


Sources
The Guardian : “Tories claim Brown 'playing politics' over anti-terror plans”
The New York Times : “Yemen; the next Afghanistan?
Foreignpolicy : “Failed States Index 2010”
The Newsweek : “Do We Need 30,000 Troops in Yemen, or A Better Counter-Terror Strategy?”