PSRP Country Summary: Yemen
Overall programme outputs
The Political Settlements Research Programme is working on a number of initiatives and publications relating to inclusive peace making and sustainable peace in Yemen, including digital platforms for peace, data visualisations, publications, and blogs. To learn more, browse our key outputs on Yemen below.
Peace agreement coding
The Political Settlements Research Programme has so far gathered 52 Yemeni peace agreements, 25 of which are local agreements. The wider Yemeni data set could broadly be summarised as covering interactions between state actors, tribal groups and local armed groups. Our work in researching around and coding different Yemeni agreements has helped shape our existing publications and is helping to inform our thinking about the nature of processes taking place across multiple systems of conflict in the country.
As we continue to look for agreements, our coding work is challenging us to think about the varying approaches to interactions and processes by a range of different actors, depending on the nature of the space in question. In this sense our coding work is leading us to draw out questions from the data, as we move towards an attempt to understand the location of day to day interactions in relation to a more comprehensive form of peace.
Working with Yemeni researchers/partners
Attempting to make further sense of the work we have done so far has been helped by the programme engaging on an ongoing basis with our Yemeni research partners. Networking and liaison has involved meetings and a series of discussions, in an attempt to better understand the nature, contexts and dynamics of differing processes in the country. As we seek to understand the linkages between the local and the national and their multidirectional relationship across conflict systems, these discussions will help us to think about questions to consider going forward in terms of gathering new agreements and particularly concerning the coding of local agreements.
Interactive timeline resource
This partnership work has also helped us to strengthen and develop our timeline resource, bringing a more localised narrative to the conflict timeline which covers political events, conflict events, national agreements and local agreements from 1990 to 2019. A revised version of the timeline was recently used in a presentation on ceasefires to the UN in Yemen. By its nature it will require further additions and revisions, however so far it has been received positively as a useful tool of recall to specific events as an online record with ease of access to PA-X database references. It has also been viewed as a potentially useful resource in establishing trends, and going forward may be useful to the UN in compiling and analysing past deals in order to try and understand the workings of future deals in the country – particularly with regard to ceasefires.
Key Issues
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Key PSRP Publications & Resources
Data visualisation: Yemen Timeline: Conflict Events & Peace and Transition Documents
PSRP’s new Yemen Timeline tool by Tobias Kauer is part of the new suite of data visualisations from the PA-X Peace Agreements Database. The interactive tool sets out a timeline of the Yemeni Conflict alongside the main peace and transition documents to date. Available in English and Arabic.
Data visualisation: Visualising Peace: Yemen Map
Part of the Visualising Peace series of data visualisations from our PA-X Peace Agreements Database, this interactive map by Sarah Schöttler displays all agreements signed in Yemen from 1990-2019, with the ability to filter by agreement content.
Journal Article: Independence or Frontlines: Securing Southern Representation in Yemen’s Peace Talks (Feb 2020)
This article by Robert Forster addresses the consolidation and rise of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in South Yemen and their push for access to a seat at the table of Yemen’s peace talks. Through the case study of the STC, the article goes on to question how veto players are defined in violent conflict, and highlights the opposing narratives surrounding the STC and their status and how that may have shaped decisions in allowing them to take part in peace talks.
Blog: Yemen’s Handshake Moment: What other peace processes can tell us about the Riyadh Agreement (Nov 2019)
Robert Forster uses data from the PA-X Peace Agreements Database to examine what other peace processes can tell us about the provisions of the Riyadh Agreement, signed on 5 November 2019 between the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council.
Blog: Yemen’s Peace Process: Dilemmas Facing the Southern Transitional Council (Nov 2018)
Robert Forster addresses the exclusion of the Southern Transitional Council from peace negotiations in Yemen and the dilemmas of inclusion in peace processes in this article for the Oxford Research Group.
Journal Article: The Southern Transitional Council: Implications on Yemen’s Peace Process (Aug 2017)
This paper by Robert Forster addresses the emergence of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Southern Yemen and assesses how to understand its significance in the current attempt to end the conflict. The STC case is useful for considering, more generally, how sub-state political settlements emerging during conflict can help or hurt conflict resolution attempts at the national level.
Journal Article: Toward a Comprehensive Solution? Yemen’s Two-Year Peace Process (Jun 2017)
After almost two years of fighting, the Yemeni peace process struggles to proceed beyond the pre-negotiation stage due to the parameters of UN Security Council Resolution 2216 (2015). This article by Robert Forster argues that, operating in the shadow of the ongoing conflict, the negotiations will struggle to progress due to Resolution 2216’s exacerbation of commitment problems, stakeholder exclusion, and security dilemmas.