Foreign Policy

Watching the news wires today made me cynically philosophical.

On 28 Jan 11, US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley, speaking during his daily press briefing, highlighted perfectly why the US engagement with Yemen often misses the cultural point and demonstrates an imperfect understanding of the nuances of the Yemen problem. Which, given his position, is frankly terrifying.

He told reporters that 'We're aware that there are protests in Sana'a and other Yemeni cities. We support the right of the Yemeni people to express themselves and assemble freely,' adding that 'part of the solution to combating violent extremism in Yemen is political and economic reform.'

Regrettably he is wrong on many levels. His argument in essence is political empowerment and a better economy will in part combat AQAP. However, the argument that AQAP is somehow meshed into political suffrage and economic prosperity is false.

If Yemen were politically empowered and rich, this would probably only apply to the urban Yemenis - the fiercely isolationist tribes would stay in their desert homes and mountain eyries and would probably scarcely neither know nor particularly care that good times had arrived in Yemen.