Yemen is embroiled in multiple civil wars, triggered by a long-term decline in oil production, the failure of state-building, strong sub-national identities and internal competition between rival elite networks that comprised the regime of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Regional actors are intervening in Yemen’s local wars to support their preferred allies, resulting in a complex conflict environment.
Ginny Hill and Baraa Shiban present their new paper for the Remote Control Project, examining the use of special forces, mercenaries and armed drones. They highlight the moral and political risks for Western governments training and arming regional protagonists, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to fight in Yemen. They argue that the implications of the Saudi-led intervention may extend far beyond Yemen’s borders to influence the conduct of future wars.
Event Details
Speakers: Ginny Hill, LSE Middle East Centre; Baraa Shiban, Reprieve
Date: Wednesday 9 November 2016
Time: 18.00-19:30
Event Hashtag: #LSEYemen
Twitter Handles: @ginnyUK; @BShtwtr
Location: Room 1.04, 1st Floor, New Academic Building, LSE
Attendance: This event is free and open to all, however registration is necessary. Registration for this event has now closed.
Admission is on a first-come-first-served basis even after registration. Not everyone who registers attends our events, so to ensure a full house, we allow more registrations than there are places. Our events are very well attended, so please make sure you arrive early. We cannot guarantee entry.
Speakers
Ginny Hill is Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. She is also a writer and independent consultant, who has covered politics and conflict in Yemen for more than a decade. She is the founder and former convenor of the Chatham House Yemen Forum (2010–2013) and she recently served on the United Nations Panel of Experts on Yemen (2015–2016).
Baraa Shiban is a Yemeni activist who works with the human rights organisation Reprieve. He investigated drone strikes across Yemen between 2012 and 2015. He also served as member of Yemen’s National Dialogue, a body in charge of reviewing Yemeni laws and drafting its new constitution, and he helped in running a media centre in Sana’a’s Change Square in 2011.
Discussant
Helen Lackner has worked in all parts of Yemen since the 1970s and lived there for close to 15 years. She has written about the country’s political economy as well as social and economic issues. She works as a freelance rural development consultant in Yemen and elsewhere and is currently also engaged in research on hydro politics in Yemen. Her latest book as editor is Why Yemen Matters (Saqi Books, 2014).