Yemen

Until 1990, Yemen consisted of two separate political entities. Unification occurred with difficulty, and difficulties remain. One problem has been the ongoing war since 2004 by the Sunni government against the Shia rebels in the north and the secession effort in the south, begun in 2007 and continuing due to grievances related to the 1994 Yemeni civil war. Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Muslim world as well as a haven for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It has national elites on top of traditional social structures, suffers from serious internal dislocation, and is running short of water and oil. The social structure of the country is also deteriorating.

Yemenis are overwhelmingly Arabic Muslim. The minority Mahri and Socotri are not Arabic Muslim, but speak Arabic as well as their own languages. Social groups include the scholarly families who trace their lineage to Muhammad and other leading Muslim historical figures, sedentary tribe-based agriculturalists and fishermen, service providers, and the landless without genealogies. Position within these distinct networks determines social, political, and economic opportunity and status, and mixed marriages are rare.

The dominant political network is tribal. Tribe identity rests on genealogy, territory, and values. Sheikhs are leaders for resolving conflicts and getting the community moving for building infrastructure, paying blood money, and the like. Confederated tribes have more power than unaligned tribes, and tribes may support or hamper national power. Some tribes support Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which cannot function without indigenous aid because AQAP membership consists of strongly indigenous tribal Yemenis and Saudis with compatible social values. In some communities, it is an alternative to the national government.

Northern Yemen began to change in the 1960s, shifting from subsistence agriculture to a market economy between 1960 and 1990. The oil boom in the 1970s led many north Yemenis to the Gulf states, where they sent over $1.5 billion per year in remittances back home. These resources allowed the creation of roads, schools, houses, and irrigation systems, as well as the introduction of new cash crops, which consumed more water and promoted the water crisis. Grain and other commodities were imported and sold at subsidized prices, forcing indigenous grain farmers and others off the land.

At the same time, the south became a command economy. South Yemen had a history as a British colony, with anticolonial socialist regimes establishing a national economy from 1970 to 1990. State-supported industry replaced local industry. A new system of governance and unified state were established by 1990, which introduced public education and health programs while changing local institutions. This unified state nationalized the land and forced traditional fishing into a subsistence-only limitation and relied on oil although it employed only a handful of the workers.