The development of North Yemen in the twentieth century was one of the most interesting features of the Arabian Peninsula. After the traumas of the civil war which embroiled Nasser’s Egypt, the country emerged from its traditional tribal heritage into the modern world. Sandwiched between Saudi Arabia and Marxist South Yemen, the country had an awkward and delicate problem in balancing its political affiliations and in resisting external pressure on its internal affairs. This book, first published in 1982, traces the history of the Yemen from the 1930s and looks at the way in which the traditional political structures were modernised and how the country coped with these strains both internally and externally.
Table of Contents
1. Background to Change in the Yemen Arab Republic 1.1. The Traditional Setting 1.2. Economic Continuity and Change 1.3. Social Dimension 1.4. Political Environment 2. The Politics of the Imamate 2.1. The Role of Personalities and Traditional Elites 2.2. Government and Institutions 2.3. The State, the Hinterland and the Outside World 3. The Process of Political Change 3.1. The Evolution of Political Awareness and Attitudes 3.2. The Transformation of Dissent 3.3. The Experience of Civil War 4. The Political Dynamics of the Republic 4.1. Division and Transformation 4.2. reconciliation and Transition 4.3. The Officers and the Modernists 4.4. Changing Roles and Alliances 5. State-building and Socio-economic Development 5.1. The Problem of Structural Legitimacy 5.2. Strategies for Development 5.3. The Government at the Beginning of the 1980s 6. Dilemmas of the 1980s 6.1. Obstacles to National Cohesion 6.2. Confronting the Obstacles 6.3. Paths Not Taken and the Quest for Legitimacy