Sub-State Actors Ascendant in Fractured Yemen

In the post-conflict period, Yemen’s heavily armed sub-state actors will likely use their military capabilities to drive a hard bargain and obtain concessions from the government.

by Richard Wallace

There is no end in sight to Yemen’s bitter conflict, which has engulfed and ripped apart the Arab world’s poorest state. Ten months since the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against rebel Houthi forces allied with fighters loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s economy and infrastructure are in tatters.

The war has also unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe in which over 2700 Yemeni civilians have died since airstrikes began, according to the UN. In the ensuing chaos, Yemen’s many local sub-state actors have been empowered. This has raised fundamental questions about the erosion of state power and territorial integrity in a post-conflict Yemeni state, and substantially threatened the prospects for a diplomatic, near-term end to the armed conflict.