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The new Middle East / Policy Brief

Yemen: Make haste slowly

26/01/2010 By Edward Burke

AFP/Getty Images
As the world’s governments gather in London to decide upon a response to the threat from a resurgent al-Qaeda in Yemen the first thing that the leaders of the US and Europe should recognise is how easy it is for them to make the situation much worse.

From a position of doing too little in terms of counter-terrorism efforts in Yemen, Western governments now seem intent on trying to do too much too quickly.  This Policy Brief warns against a course of action that would inflame anti-Western sentiment and argues instead for a multi-faceted response that deals with the local problems that have sapped the capacity of the Yemeni government and allowed al-Qaeda to flourish.


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Keywords

Middle East Multilateralism Terrorism War on terror

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Bio author: Edward Burke

Political trends in the Persian Gulf region. Iraq. Yemen. Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia. Politics of energy in the Middle East.