THE POLITICS AND SOCIETY OF SOUTH ARABIA – A DREAM THAT TURNED INTO A NIGHTMARISH REALITY

GAGIĆ Marko (Marko Gagić, PhD. Assistant Lecturer. Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade), markogagic.bg@gmail.com

In its broadest sense, this paper deals with the socio-political situation in one of the World’s most fragile and unstable states – Yemen. The first part of the paper gives a review of the socio-political situation in the pre-unification period, with a focus on the explanation of some regional differences in this highly fragmented society. The second part deals with the difficulties of the postunification period during which tensions in Yemen gradually grew and eventually led to a full-scale war that started in 2015. The third part is a review of the situation from the start of the political turmoil until the present day. Yemen is the least known of all Arab states and the situation in it is often misunderstood or oversimplified. For this reason, the goal of this paper is to shed light on the entangled Yemeni socio-political dynamics in order to help the understanding of the present political context in this country.

Keywords: Yemen, PDRY, YAR, unity, war, history, society, politics