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Sarah Phillips lectures at the Centre for International Security Studies, Sydney University. She previously worked at the National Democratic Institute in Yemen and specializes in governance, conflict, and reform in the Middle East. Her recent book, Yemen’s Democracy Experiment in Regional Perspective was published by Palgrave Macmillan. The research for this essay was conducted between 2006-8, when the author was living and working in Yemen. It draws on formal interviews and informal conversations with JMP members (in all governorate branch offices), GPC members, political activists, and average Yemenis.
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.
