Education
After more than four years of war, Yemen teeters on the brink of what the European Union has described as “the world's largest humanitarian crisis.” Conservative estimates count at least 10,000 civilian deaths in the ongoing conflict, with millions more threatened by disease and famine. Yet for many in the West, Yemen remains a forgotten war, despite the fact that the Saudi-backed forces fighting the northern Houthi rebels continue to deploy weapons produced in the United States and in Europe with devastating effect. This month, History Talk explores the current conflict in Yemen and its historical antecedents with two experts on the region: Dr. Asher Orkaby and Dr. Austin Knuppe. We examine the conflict in its multiple facets – a civil war between regional parties, an anti-terrorism campaign, and a proxy war between regional foes: it’s all three – to better understand why peace remains so elusive. To learn more about the War in Yemen, read this month's feature article, Yemen: A Civil War Centuries in the Making, by Dr Asher Orkaby. For more coverage of the Middle East, be sure to check out The Secular Roots of a Religious Divide in Contemporary Iraq, Alawites and the Fate of Syria, and Syria's Islamic Movement and the 2011-12 Uprising. -Posted April 2019[A transcript of this podcast is available here.]