The Saudi-led Intervention in Yemen

Abstract

Scholars have examined the drivers of the Yemeni conflict through various lenses, including sectarianism, state weakness, regional rivalries, and elite competition. This study employs the Transnational Conflict Framework (TNC) and the Intervention-Reconstruction-Withdrawal model (IRW) to analyze the conflict dynamics and study the impact of the Saudi-Led Intervention. It utilizes various peer-reviewed journal articles, books, archival documents, reports, and news articles to analyze the conflict, its dynamics, and prospect resolution. This analysis reveals that the conflict is rooted in different global, regional, local, identity, and individual drivers that have prevented a successful intervention toward conflict mitigation. The failure of the Saudi-led intervention is primarily due to unstable alliances, the unwavering external support to the Houthis, and the growing contradictions between main interveners (i.e., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates). This research suggests that a proper conflict resolution plan for Yemen needs to entrust greater role in local actors to lead the negotiations and devise agreements while being incentivized by external reward packages. It also suggests that further research should be conducted that advances bottom-up and culturally-sensitive conflict resolution frameworks.