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Cargando... Yemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes (edición 2010)por V Clark
Información de la obraYemen: Dancing on the Heads of Snakes por Victoria Clark
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Yemen is the dark horse of the Middle East. Every so often it enters the headlines for one alarming reason or another-links with al-Qaeda, kidnapped Westerners, explosive population growth-then sinks into obscurity again. But, as Victoria Clark argues in this riveting book, we ignore Yemen at our peril. The poorest state in the Arab world, it is still dominated by its tribal makeup and has become a perfect breeding ground for insurgent and terrorist movements.Clark returns to the country where she was born to discover a perilously fragile state that deserves more of our understanding and attention. On a series of visits to Yemen between 2004 and 2009, she meets politicians, influential tribesmen, oil workers and jihadists as well as ordinary Yemenis. Untangling Yemen's history before examining the country's role in both al-Qaeda and the wider jihadist movement today, Clark presents a lively, clear, and up-to-date account of a little-known state whose chronic instability is increasingly engaging the general reader. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)953.3History and Geography Asia Arabian Peninsula YemenClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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Clark is British but was born in Yemen when her father was a foreign correspondent. It is this fact that gave her entree to talk with many players in Yemeni politics and society. What emerges is a portrait of a nation that exists in symbiosis with powerful, and oftentimes, rivaling tribal leaders. According to one leader, Yemen is "a nation and tribes" and it appears these two are mutually exclusive. Tribal interests are in money and land; bribes, violence and nepotism are their hallmarks. They are so ingrained that when the Republic of Yemen emerged in the latter part of the 20th century the elected Parliament took a back seat to the tribes. The President described making deals deals as "dancing on the heads of snakes;" hence the title of this book, and the conclusion of Clark that the large number of jihadists in the country was farther down on government list of priorities, giving them a chance to thrive.
Yemen is, of course, a Muslim country. Although I haven't mentioned religious tension here, it is threaded throughout its tribal history. However, it isn't the main focus of this book.
This book provides a good background for our understanding of Middle Eastern politics. But it was slow reading for me. There is a lot of detail - be prepared to have Google maps and Wikipedia handy! ( )