ABSTRACT
The Republic of Yemen (ROY), in an ancient and historic land, is the most recent state to appear in the Middle East, with the contemporary state emerging in 1990 with the fusion of the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). The PDRY was the poorest Middle East country and, as a radical client of the former Soviet Union, was virtually a pariah state in the region; the YAR to the north was the second poorest country and was ambivalent in its East-West relations. Yemen extends from the Omani border on the east along the southern peninsula coast, around the corner at the strategic Bab el-Mandeb, and northward along the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia. Tihamah, the Red Sea coastal plain, is part of the coastal fringe along the western edge of the peninsula.
