This week, governments will vote at the United Nations on whether to create an international commission of inquiry on Yemen. In recent weeks, 67 international, regional, and Yemeni NGOs urged the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent inquiry into serious allegations of human rights and humanitarian law violations—a call that Canada, the Netherlands, and China have echoed.…   continue »

The United Nations Security Council issued a presidential statement last month calling on all parties in Yemen’s internationalized civil war to “engage in peace talks in a flexible and constructive manner without preconditions, and in good faith.” But the warring parties in Yemen do not seem to be listening.…   continue »

As the Trump administration enters its sixth month, fears that it would unilaterally rip up its predecessor’s landmark Iran nuclear agreement are beginning to fade.

But the chances for confrontation between the United States and the Islamic Republic remain worrisomely high as the two sides test each other’s defenses and proxies in regional conflicts.…   continue »

At this point in our internecine political discourse, it is increasingly rare for foreign policy stories to survive more than a single news cycle unless they involve Russia.  However, a bit earlier this month, an important story was barely a blip on the U.S.…   continue »

American democracy is shackled by the influence of money in politics. One of the arenas where the problem manifests itself most acutely is in Congress on questions of defense industry appropriations and arms exports. In a book that describes an unusual success story in overcoming moneyed interests in Congress, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote that the armed services and appropriations committees “were largely split not by party or ideology but, with a few exceptions, by the location of the pork.” As Gates and defense secretaries before him witnessed, Congress often voted for programs favoring defense facilities or contracts in members’ districts or states despite the Pentagon taking the strong position that the program was superfluous or wasteful.…   continue »

The Saudi-led coalition’s near three-year conflict in Yemen appears to be converging on the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeidah. Foreign diplomats, international humanitarian NGOs, and experts have rightly voiced concerns of the humanitarian disaster that would result if an operation to recapture the city takes place.…   continue »

The most iconic photo of President Trump’s first foreign trip may end up being the one that mushroomed into an internet meme last weekend — the American leader, huddled with the King of Saudi Arabia and the President of Egypt, their hands joined on a glowing orb.  …   continue »

Jared Kushner played a leading role in orchestrating a $100 billion arms deal with the Saudi government, according to the New York Times. At the same time the Saudi air force has allegedly engaged in repeated war crimes in Yemen, including attacks on schools, hospitals, and a funeral home, on many of these occasions reportedly with the use of US weaponry.…   continue »

The burned remains of a fuel tanker at the Arhab water drilling site in the Sanaa governorate.

A  well being dug in a small village in Yemen was nearing completion last September when it was bombed by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.…   continue »

Defense secretary Jim Mattis has described Syria as “the most complex civil war probably raging on the planet at this time,” but Yemen is giving it a run for its money. In both places, the line between adversary and ally is not easily drawn, which puts the United States at risk of unintentionally furthering the cause of some of its worst enemies.…   continue »