Shifting Priorities: Reconstituting Security Agendas and Security Sector Reforms in Yemen

Cook, Joana

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-55769-8_41

Joana Cook⁵

2314 Accesses

Abstract

Led by the U.S. and the “War on Terror”, conflicting priorities of how to address “security” and “terrorism” with the partners they engage have emerged. Examining the case of Yemen and how women are engaged in, and impacted by, these security practices, this paper will outline U.S. counterterrorism strategies in Yemen under the Bush and Obama administrations up to 2015, before interogating gendered impacts of these in Yemen. It is evident significant gaps still exist in understanding how women’s interests are reflected in competing international priorities. Significant questions emerge as to how primary and secondary impacts of counterterrorism policies and practices on women are understood or assessed.

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Notes

1.
For more detailed history, see Johnsen (2013).
2.
UN Security Council Resolution 678 in 1990 was to authorize Operation Desert Storm. Yemen had a seat on the Security Council at the time and voted against the initiative. As a direct consequence of that, the USA largely terminated US military and economic assistance programmes in Yemen.
3.
Section 1206 funding provides the Secretary of Defense with authority to train and equip foreign military forces for two specified purposes—counterterrorism and stability operations—and foreign security forces for counterterrorism operations. See Serafino (2010).
4.
USAID states that they alone have contributed $100 million in assistance to approximately 400,000 vulnerable and conflict-affected individuals across Yemen (USAID 2015). This speaks to the significant impact the US development efforts in the country may play.
5.
It should be noted that historically women in the PDRY had significantly more freedoms, rights, work force participation and educational rates which became negatively impacted after unification in 1990.
6.
(UNICEF 2014). The lower rates of female education in Yemen can be attributed to a number of factors, predominantly poverty, early marriage and a lack of female teachers and girl’s schools.
7.
See Raja (2013) for a detailed analysis of women’s roles in this period.

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King’s College London, London, UK
Joana Cook

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School of International Studies, University of Trento, Trento, Trento, Italy
Scott Nicholas Romaniuk
Department of Political Science and International Studies, McDaniel College , Westminster, Maryland, USA
Francis Grice
Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Catania, Italy
Daniela Irrera
DefenceReport, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada
Stewart Webb

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Cook, J. (2017). Shifting Priorities: Reconstituting Security Agendas and Security Sector Reforms in Yemen. In: Romaniuk, S., Grice, F., Irrera, D., Webb, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55769-8_41

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55769-8_41
Published: 29 June 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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