Amuse-gueules: Yemen

I’ve been annoyed by a lot of the talk about Yemen lately, because, as we’ve already seen in the past with Somalia, it’s become a topic du jour. This means that lots of people who don’t know much more than what they can glean from Wikipedia are talking as if they’ve suddenly become experts on the place.

I’ve only spent a little bit of time in Yemen, so my knowledge of the country is very limited, although it is enough to recognize that a lot of the people running their mouths about it (some of them elected officials), have no idea what they’re talking about.

To combat that and shed a little light on one of my favorite Arab countries, I’m dedicating today’s edition of amuse-gueules to Yemen:

• Waq al-Waq, a blog by Gregory Johnsen on Yemen
• Johnsen on Yemen’s explosion and the Houthi rebellion
• The ICG on Saada and the Houthis
• Patrick Seale on state failure in Yemen (in French)
• Fred Halliday revisiting Arabia Without Sultans
• Halliday’s book on South Yemen’s foreign policy
• Chatham House report on Yemen
• IRIN report on the Houthi war
• Tim Mackintosh-Smith’s awesome book on Yemen, a.k.a. Travels in Dictionary Land
• A nice travel book on Ethiopia and Yemen developed around chewing qat
• My friend Nizo’s North and South Yemeni stamp collection with a link about Yemeni honey (the best I’ve ever had)
• Human Rights Watch on repression in the south
• Paul Dresch’s A History of Modern Yemen
• UNDP’s poverty assessment report
• Brian Whitaker’s collection of documents and links on Yemen’s international relations

If you’ve got more suggestions about good sources about Yemen, please let me know in the comments.