The Persian Gulf Rimland: Federalism, Geostrategy and Patronage in Contemporary Southern Yemen

This essay investigates the geopolitics of contemporary Southern Yemen. Due to the civil war, two intertwined dynamics have been altering intraSouthern balances, shifting consolidated power relations. At a domestic level, interregional and tribal struggles for autonomy and/or independence grow, given also the persisting vacuum in local governance and security. At a regional level, the geopolitical game played by Middle Eastern (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Turkey and Iran) and international players (United States, Russia and China) in the Aden regional security complex is on the rise, driven by commercial and military interests. Yemen’s sovereignty fragmentation represents a security risk for Persian Gulf powers, as well as a geostrategic chance to enhance and/or expand their influence on Southern Yemen, the Persian Gulf rimland. For Saudi Arabia and most of all the UAE, Southern Yemen is a platform for their new interventionist foreign policies: for geostrategic purposes, Abu Dhabi has invested in transnational patronage in many Southern regions, thus gaining new military leverage in the subregion.