Robert D. Burrowes - The Yemen Arab Republic: The Politics of Development, 1962-1986

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: THE GULF

Volume 16

THE YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC

The Politics of Development, 19621986

Robert D. Burrowes

First published in 1987 in Great Britain by Croom Helm Ltd.
First published in 1987 in the United States of America by Westview Press, Inc.

This edition first published in 2016
by Routledge
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1987 Robert D. Burrowes

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-11959-8 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-64190-4 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-18312-4 (Volume 16) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-64530-8 (Volume 16) (ebk)

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

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The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

The Yemen Arab Republic

The Politics of Development, 1962-1986

Robert D. Burrowes

This volume is included in Westview's Special Studies on the Middle East.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Westview Press.

Copyright 1987 by Westview Press, Inc.

Published in 1987 in the United States of America by Westview Press, Inc.; Frederick A. Praeger, Publisher; 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301

Published in 1987 in Great Britain by Croom Helm Ltd., Provident House, Burrell Row, Beckenham, Kent, BR3 1AT

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burrowes, Robert D.
The Yemen Arab Republic.
(Westview special studies on the Middle East)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Yemen-Politics and government. I. Tide.
II. Series.
DS247.Y48B87 1987 953'.32 86-15832
ISBN 0-8133-0435-0

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Burrowes, Robert D.
The Yemen Arab Republic: the politics of development, 1962-1986.
(Westview special studies on the Middle East)
1. Yemen-social conditions
I. Title
953'.32053 HN564.A8
ISBN 0-7099-5024-1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

From my notebook on Christmas Day 1975, in the city of Taiz, the Yemen Arab Republic: "I want to keep my story about the politics of development in Yemen current, to bring it down as close to today as I can. The general reading public in the USA is not exactly waiting with bated breath for a book on Yemen. I want to snare a few readers who are not Middle East specialists or blood relatives, and I think my chances will be better if I can lay claim to the latest word on a place that, if I'm lucky, may be somewhat in the news." I finally finished the book in late spring 1986, and I was lucky. Hunt Oil Company struck oil in the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) in 1984, and newspaper and magazine coverage picked up after that. The YAR president opened the first Yemeni oil refinery in April 1986, an occasion attended by U.S. Vice President George Bush and, among others, executives from Hunt Oil and Exxon Corporation. Three months earlier, the ruling Marxist party in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, the other Yemen, was convulsed by a very bloody and public struggle for power, an event of considerable interest to corporate and government leaders in the United States.

Why a book on North Yemen or, more properly, the Yemen Arab Republic? This book is my equivalent of Hillary's climbing Everest because it was there: I wrote about North Yemen because that's where I ended up. I went to the YAR for the first time and in complete ignorance to visit with friends when I fled Lebanon and my teaching job at the American University of Beirut during the fighting in late 1975. The "short visit until things settled down in Beirut" turned into a year's stay, lasting through most of 1976, and a decision to learn from scratch about the politics of development in the YAR. A year in New York and Beirut was followed by a four-year stay in the YAR, from 1978 through 1981. During my time in the YAR, while residing in Taiz, Sanaa, and a bit in rural al-Mahwit, I built furniture for expatriates, helped bring up and teach soccer to a fine young man, did consulting and a couple of studies for development agencies, and directed a USAID-funded rural-development project for American Save the Children. Mostly, though, I spent my five years in the YAR poking around and studying the Yemenis and their politics. Largely by chance, I became friends with several very knowledgeable Yemenis in high posts, and I have had the good luck of being able to maintain some of these contacts since leaving the YAR.

One peevish reason for writing about the YAR is to counter the Saudi centered view of the Arabian Peninsula that prevails in the United States, one in which the Peninsula is seen as big, rich Saudi Arabia surrounded by a handful of tiny, weak, and artificial Arab oil states and an uncertainly located place or places called Yemen. ("Is there more than one of them?" "It's Communist, isn't it?") I have come to care greatly for this place called Yemen. It has been of real importance from time to time in human history and is just now again becoming an important country on the Arabian Peninsula Indeed, I have my own metaphor for the Peninsula, one that reveals my bias in favor of Yemen. Yemen is comparable to the lowest corner of a giant, mostly empty, rectangular pants pocket-the Arabian Peninsula. Over the millennia, this corner has collected most of the pocket's mountains, rainfall, vegetation, people, history, monuments, and other cultural artifacts. Seemingly not included, alas, was the oil of Arabia and the new cities, industries, and wealth spawned by that oil. It is in combination with these other resources that the recent discovery of oil is about to make a big difference for the YAR.