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Lisa Wedeen is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (1999) and Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power, and Performances in Yemen (2008).
This project was originally imagined as a multi-authored consideration of Yemen’s April 2009 parliamentary process — its lead-up, outcomes, and likely consequences. Following the postponement of these elections, the authors have instead sought to examine not only the stated and implicit reasons for the delay, but also Yemen’s increasing political unrest — turmoil which the regime has helped foster and to which it has begun to overreact. For the authors, the key question is less whether the elections will be held in 2011, but whether the country will remain intact until then.
