ABSTRACT

This contribution examines the actors involved in the Yemeni transformation and how the evolving dynamics among them affected the emerging political order. Although constrained by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Initiative, which initiated a peaceful transfer of power, the core politically relevant elite (PRE) used its networks in the political parties, military, tribes and media to continue to pursue its own interests. Thus this article analyses the interplay of a conflict over political power among the elite and the implementation of the GCC Initiative – that is, the nexus between power dynamics and the formal transformation process. In this context, it looks at how PRE actors interacted with other actors, including mobilized publics, such as the Hirak movement, which seeks an independent state in southern Yemen; local conflicts, including the battles between the army and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and between Ansarullah (Partisans of God, the Houthi movement) and various tribes and factions of the army; institutions, such as the mechanisms of the NDC; and regional and international powers pursuing their interests in the country by granting or withholding financial or other types of support to various components of the PRE.