UNA Warwick District: What are the prospects for peace in Yemen in 2019 and beyond?

Guest Speaker:  Helen Lackner

Researcher and Development worker on the Middle East and Yemen in particular. An author among other books of Yemen in Crisis, won the Grand Prix Literary Associations 2018, Research Associate at London Middle East Institute at SOAS

The local UN Association are delighted to announce that Helen Lackner has accepted an invitation to come and address our Branch meeting.   For more than five years, Yemen has been locked in a seemingly intractable civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people and pushed millions to the brink of starvation. Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, has been devastated by this civil war which has reduced in the media to a two-sided fight between the Houthis, supported by Iran, against the forces loyal to the government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with the support of the US, UK and France.  But in reality the conflict is much more complicated.

Helen`s talk will address the background to the current situation in Yemen and the factors that may help answer some of the most pressing questions. Why are the warring factions unable to reach a peace agreement? What is the role of the international community? What lessons can be learned for Yemen's future and beyond?  Helen will also be mapping key local and regional stakeholders in Yemen`s conflict, examining prospects for peace, presenting a long-term approach for ending the crisis, state-building and economic reconstruction

Helen Lackner worked as a consultant in social aspects of rural development for four decades in over thirty countries, mostly in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. She has been involved in Yemen since the early 1970s where she lived in all three Yemeni states for over 15 years. She now focuses on analysis and writing, trying to promote commitment to equitable development and peace in Yemen. Her most recent publications include Yemen’s Peaceful Transition from Autocracy: could it have succeeded?(International IDEA 2016) and Understanding the Yemeni Crisis: the transformation of tribal roles in recent decades (Durham, Luce Fellowship Paper 17, 2016). Her latest book is Yemen in Crisis: autocracy, neo-liberalism and the disintegration of a state (Saqi, 2017) which will be available for sale at the meeting..

There will be  Ploughman`s Lunch and coffee/tea (£3.50 per head) from 12:00 pm till 2:15 pm and the meeting starts at 12:30 prompt.   

Please do come along and bring a friend!

Please keep this date in your diary.