Yemen faces a host of economic and security challenges. In order to stabilize the country, a proper balance of short term counterterrorism measures and long term development assistance is needed.
Efforts to combat terrorism largely defined the global security agenda during the past decade, when small terrorist groups, with as few as three hundred active members, were able to inflict enormous amounts of damage on regional, national, and international scales.
The presence of Al-Qaeda in Yemen is only one of many security and economic challenges facing the country. International aid must be comprehensive in nature and empower the Yemenis to build their own capacity, in order to combat these challenges.
As the international community searches for ways to prevent further destabilization in Yemen, the Obama administration is being forced to rethink its plans for the numerous Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
While the rise of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has focused international attention on Yemen, the country’s economic and demographic challenges pose a greater threat to its stability than al-Qaeda does.
Yemen’s stability is threatened by multiple security and economic challenges, ranging from a rapidly growing population to imminent economic collapse, and immediate and sustained international attention is needed to prevent Yemen from becoming a failed state.
Yemen’s mounting security and economic issues require an international approach. Ultimately, aid to Yemen must address the long term stability issues the country is facing, not just American or regional security concerns.
Assertions that "Yemen is tomorrow's war" are unhelpful; while Yemen will not replace South Asia as the central front in the war on terror, it is nevertheless a critical state of concern that will require long-term attention to target the sources of its instability.
Saudi Arabia's rehabilitation program for former detainees at Guantanamo Bay includes religious dialogue and relies heavily on families of the former detainees. To date, the program has had a success rate of about 80 percent.
Civil war, terrorism, a deepening secessionist movement, and economic and demographic trends threaten to overpower the Yemeni government, destabilize the region, and provide a breeding ground for terrorists who will mount operations across the Arabian Peninsula and internationally.


















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