Most people reading this were probably born before the modern state of Yemen existed. In my office is an outdated globe from the 1980s, and if one looks carefully, one will find the countries of North Yemen and South Yemen, which were both independent countries (from their respective dates of independence) until 1990.
While much of the rationale behind unification likely stemmed from a desire to facilitate exploitation of oil resources by the ruling classes of each country, the idea was sold to the public as an effort to reduce military conflict between the two countries, while making everyone richer.
Not shockingly, the unification that was supposed to bring peace merely brought civil war four years later, and allowed the North to gain military superiority which it has exploited ever since. As with so many other cases, Yemenis were promised great benefits from unification, but when those benefits fail to materialize, or if the once-independent jurisdictions express second thoughts, it’s never “go your own way in peace.” It’s virtually always “too bad, you’re in this union forever. Open fire, boys.”
Today, the secessionist movement among Southern Yemenis is growing.
As with many secessionist movements, some also argue merely for decentralization of the Yemeni state, which is of course at least a step in the right direction.
Moreover, the central state’s authoritarian habits, and the resulting discontent, has, as is so often the case, facilitated the rise of religious extremism in the region.
