Moving Beyond “The Brink”: The Need for Nuance in Yemen Reporting

The “on the brink” narrative favored by international media depicts Yemen in simplistic terms that obfuscate more than they elucidate, where nuance is key to understanding a complex nation.

by Adam Baron

While the conflict(s) in Yemen is deeply complicated, international media portrays it in black and white terms. Yemen, the reader is told, is in the midst of a “proxy war,” as fighting between “Shi’it rebels” and “government loyalists” has pushed the country “to the brink” (of what, exactly, is often unclear).

These descriptions are not whol…