Arabia Incognita
Dispatches from Yemen and the Gulf
Yemen is an intriguing, strategically located country that is the perennial “poor relation” of the wealthy oil monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula and has been plagued by deadly conflict since early 2015. In 2011, it saw a broad eruption of the mass protests associated with the “Arab Spring”. But four years later, that popular movement was largely over-run by a series of deadly conflicts, stoked from outside by a lengthy, lethal military intervention led by neighboring Saudi Arabia. Arabia Incognita helps readers understand Yemen’s unfolding crisis by tracing the country’s modern history from the strong anti-imperial movement of the 1960s through the present complex of conflicts. The "dispatches" in this anthology, originally published in Middle East Report, were chosen by renowned Yemen expert Dr. Sheila Carapico. Arabia Incognita is published in collaboration with the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), which has published Middle East Report since 1971.
Sheila Carapico is widely recognized as a leading expert on Yemen. She is the author of Civil Society in Yemen: The Political Economy of Activism in Modern Arabia and numerous other books. During 2010, she was Visiting Chairperson of the Department of Political Science at the American University in Cairo. The Middle East Research and Information Project is a progressive, independent non-profit based in Washington, DC. Since 1971 MERIP has provided critical analysis of the Middle East, focusing on political economy, popular struggles, and the implications of U.S. and international policy for the region.
