The Politics of (Re)Unification Lessons from Yemen for Cyprus
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Abstract
By embarking on a comparative engagement with the histories of division and the politics of (re)unification in Yemen and Cyprus this article draws tentative lessons for Cyprus from Yemen’s experience of (re)unification and its repercussions. It argues that the Yemeni case provides Cypriots with strategies for the de-legitimisation of narratives of intractability. However, despite some positive lessons, the greatest lesson the experience of Yemen should teach Cyprus is to avoid engaging in the politics of (re)unification under the guidance of opportunism and without any vestiges of prudence. Therefore, this article argues that for now, in light of the lessons Yemen has taught us, (re)unification should be avoided. It should only be revisited when prudence prevails on both sides.
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Keywords
Yemen, Cyprus, (re)unification, intractability, natural gas, prudence
References
British National Archive at Kew Garden:
FCO 8/339, ‘N.F.L.’, 15 November 1967.
FCO 8/260, RGCY, ‘The rulers’ potential as dissident leaders’.
FCO 8/173.
CO/1055/220.
CO/1055/202.
Interview with an Analysts on Yemeni Crisis from 9/11 – November 2011, on 14 June 2012.
Agathangelou, A.M. and Ling, L.H.M. (1997) ‘Postcolonial Dissidence within Dissident IR: Transforming Master Narratives of Sovereignty in Greco–Turkish Cyprus’, Studies in Political Economy, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Fall), pp. 7–38.
Al-Jifri, A.R.A. (1997) ‘Yemeni Unification, Crisis and Solution’, in Joffè, E.G.H., Hachemi, M.J. and Watkins, E.W. (eds), Yemen Today: Crisis and Solutions. London: Caravel Press, pp. 178–201.
Alwazir, A. (2011) ‘Yemen’s GCC Initiative: Cosmetic of Comprehensive Change?’, Alakhbar English, 30 November 2011. Available at [http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/2088], accessed 22 November 2012.
Antelava, N. (2011) ‘Has US Policy Catalysed Yemen Unrest?’, BBC Newsnight, 28 April 2011. Online video available at [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9470573.stm], accessed 25 August 2011.
Blumi, I. (2009) ‘Unique Authoritarianism: Shifting Fortunes and the Malleability of the Salih Regime in Yemen, 1990–Present’, EUI Working Papers. Available at [http://cadmus.eui.eu/ bitstream/handle/1814/10734/EUI_RSCAS_2009_10b.pdf?sequence=3], accessed 1 October 2012.
Blumi, I. (2011) Chaos in Yemen: Societal Collapse and the New Authoritarianism. London: Routledge.
Bergen, P. and Tiedemann, K. (2011) ‘Washington’s Phantom War: The Effects of the US Drone Programme in Pakistan’, Foreign Affairs, 1 June 2011.
Brown, C. (2012) ‘The “Practice Turn”, Phronesis and Classical Realism: Towards a Phronetic International Political Theory?’, Millennium, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 439–456.
Burrowes, R.D. (1998) ‘The Republic of Yemen: The Politics of Unification and Civil War, 1989–1995’, in Hudson, M.C. (ed.), Middle East Dilemma, The Politics and Economics of Arab Integration. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers, pp. 187–213.
Choisi, J. (2010a) ‘The Turkish Cypriot Elite – Its Social Function and Legitimation’, in Solomou, E. and Faustmann, H. (eds), Colonial Cyprus 1878–1960, Selected Readings. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press, pp. 277–300.
Choisi, J. (2010b) ‘The Greek Cypriot Elite – Its Social Function and Legitimation’, in Solomou, E. and Faustmann, H. (eds), Colonial Cyprus 1878–1960, Selected Readings. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press, pp. 301–334.
Constantinou, C.M. (2007) ‘Aporias of Identity: Bicommunalism, Hybridity and the “Cyprus Problem”’, Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 247–270.
Dingli, S. (2012) ‘Is the Failed State Thesis Analytically Useful? The Case of Yemen’, Politics. Available at [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9256.2012.01453.x/abstract], accessed 15 November 2012.
Esposito, J.L. (2003) The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Finn, T. and Alwazir, A. (2011) ‘A House Divided’, Foreign Policy, 28 November 2011. Available at [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/28/a_house_divided?page=0,2], accessed 5 September 2012.
Gause III, F.G. (1990) Saudi-Yemeni Relations: Domestic Structures and Foreign Influence. New York: Columbia University Press.
Halliday, F. (1990) Revolution and Foreign Policy, the Case of South Yemen 1967–1987. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hariman, R. and Beer, F.A. (1998) ‘What Would Be Prudent?: Forms of Reasoning in World Politics’, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Fall), pp. 299–330.
Hudson, M.C. (1995) ‘Bipolarity, Rational Calculation and War in Yemen’, in al-Suwaidi, J.S. (ed.), The Yemeni War of 1994, Causes and Consequences. London: Saqi Books, pp. 19–32.
International Crisis Group (2009) ‘Yemen: Defusing the Saada Time Bomb’, Middle East Report No. 86, 27 May 2009. Available at [http://www.observatori.org/paises/pais_64/documentos/86 _yemen___defusing_the_saada_time_bomb.pdf], accessed 20 August 2012.
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[http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/turkey-cyprus/cyprus/216-aphrodites-gift-cancypriot-gas-power-a-new-dialogue.pdf], accessed 5 August 2012.
Ismail, S. (2012) ‘Unification in Yemen, Dynamics of Political Integration 1978–2000’. Unpublished Thesis, University of Oxford. Available online at [users.ox.ac.uk/~metheses/ Ismail%20Thesis.pdf], accessed 20 August 2012.
Kambas, M. (2012) ‘Both Sides Would Win from Cyprus Unification’, Reuters, 23 September 2012. Available at [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/23/us-cyprus-un-talks-idUSBRE88M07120120923], accessed 23 November 2012.
Ker-Lindsay, J. (2011) The Cyprus Problem: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ker-Lindsay, J., Faustmann, H. and Mullen, F. (eds) (2011) An Island in Europe: The EU and the Transformation of Cyprus. London: I.B. Tauris.
Kostiner, J. (1996) Yemen the Torturous Quest for Unity, 1990–1994. London: Royal Institute for Foreign Affairs.
Lacher, H. and Kaymak E. (2005) ‘Transforming Identities: Beyond the Politics of Non-Settlement in North Cyprus’, Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 10, No. 2 (July), pp. 147–166.
Machiavelli, N. (1992) The Prince. New York: Dover Publications Inc.
Mallinson, W. (2007) ‘US Interests, British Acquiescence and the Invasion of Cyprus’, The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 494–508.
Mayborn, W. (2011) ‘Creating Turmoil: Why UAV Strikes will be Counter-productive in Yemen’, Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis, Vol. 6, pp. 79–82.
Morgenthau, H.J. (1962) ‘The Demands of Prudence’, Politics in the Twentieth Century Vol. 3: The Restoration of American Politics, pp. 15–18.
Morelli, V. (2012) ‘Cyprus Reunification Proving Elusive’, CRS Report for Congress. Available at [http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41136.pdf], accessed 22 November 2012.
Mouffe, C. (1993) The Return of the Political. London: Verso. O’Connell, M.E. (2011) ‘Seductive Drones: Learning from a Decade of Lethal Operations’, Journal of Law Information and Science, EAP 2. Available at [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1912635], accessed 20 November 2012.
Papadakis, Y. (2008) ‘Narrative, Memory and History Education in Divided Cyprus: A Comparison of Schoolbooks on the “History of Cyprus”’, Memory and History, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Fall/Winter), pp. 128–148.
Papageorgiou, S.P. (2010) ‘The Genesis of the Greek and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus, 1878–1914: A Common March at a Different Pace’, in Solomou, E. and Faustmann, H. (eds), Colonial Cyprus 1878–1960, Selected Readings. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press, pp. 47–56.
Philips, S. (2011) Yemen and the Politics of Permanent Crisis. London: The International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Salmoni, B.A., Loidolt, B. and Wells, M. (2010) Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen: The Huthi Phenomenon. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
Schmitt. C. (1976) The Concept of the Political. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
ΣΚΑΪ 'Μαθήματα Κυπριακής Ιστορίας', Οι Νεοι Φακελοι [ΣΚΑΪ, ‘Lessons in Cypriot History’, The New Files] [video online], available at [http://folders.skai.gr/main/theme?id=86&locale=el], accessed 20 July 2012.
Stevenson, T.B. (1993) ‘Yemeni Workers Come Home: Re-absorbing One Million Migrants’, Middle East Report, No. 181 (March/April), pp. 15–20.
Tocci, N. (2000) ‘The “Cyprus Question”: Reshaping Identities and Elite Interests within a Wider European Framework’, CFPS Working Document No. 154 (September).
US Department of State (2011) ‘Yemen Executive Summary’, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2011. Available at [http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/186667.pdf], accessed 22 November 2012.
Varnava, A. (2010) ‘Reinterpreting Macmillan’s Cyprus Policy, 1957–1960’, in Solomou, E. and Faustmann, H. (eds), Colonial Cyprus 1878–1960, Selected Readings. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press, pp. 163–192.
Warner, G. (2009) ‘The United States and the Cyprus Crisis of 1974’, International Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 1, pp. 129–143.
Whitaker, B. (1997) ‘National Unity and Democracy in Yemen: A Marriage of Inconvenience’, in Joffè, E.G.H., Hachemi, M.J. and Watkins, E.W. (eds), Yemen Today: Crisis and Solutions. London: Caravel Press, pp. 21–27.
Wolleh, O. (2001) Local Peace Constituencies. Berlin: Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management. Available at [http://www.berghof-conflictresearch.org/documents/publications/br8e.pdf], accessed 20 July 2012.
FCO 8/339, ‘N.F.L.’, 15 November 1967.
FCO 8/260, RGCY, ‘The rulers’ potential as dissident leaders’.
FCO 8/173.
CO/1055/220.
CO/1055/202.
Interview with an Analysts on Yemeni Crisis from 9/11 – November 2011, on 14 June 2012.
Agathangelou, A.M. and Ling, L.H.M. (1997) ‘Postcolonial Dissidence within Dissident IR: Transforming Master Narratives of Sovereignty in Greco–Turkish Cyprus’, Studies in Political Economy, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Fall), pp. 7–38.
Al-Jifri, A.R.A. (1997) ‘Yemeni Unification, Crisis and Solution’, in Joffè, E.G.H., Hachemi, M.J. and Watkins, E.W. (eds), Yemen Today: Crisis and Solutions. London: Caravel Press, pp. 178–201.
Alwazir, A. (2011) ‘Yemen’s GCC Initiative: Cosmetic of Comprehensive Change?’, Alakhbar English, 30 November 2011. Available at [http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/2088], accessed 22 November 2012.
Antelava, N. (2011) ‘Has US Policy Catalysed Yemen Unrest?’, BBC Newsnight, 28 April 2011. Online video available at [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9470573.stm], accessed 25 August 2011.
Blumi, I. (2009) ‘Unique Authoritarianism: Shifting Fortunes and the Malleability of the Salih Regime in Yemen, 1990–Present’, EUI Working Papers. Available at [http://cadmus.eui.eu/ bitstream/handle/1814/10734/EUI_RSCAS_2009_10b.pdf?sequence=3], accessed 1 October 2012.
Blumi, I. (2011) Chaos in Yemen: Societal Collapse and the New Authoritarianism. London: Routledge.
Bergen, P. and Tiedemann, K. (2011) ‘Washington’s Phantom War: The Effects of the US Drone Programme in Pakistan’, Foreign Affairs, 1 June 2011.
Brown, C. (2012) ‘The “Practice Turn”, Phronesis and Classical Realism: Towards a Phronetic International Political Theory?’, Millennium, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 439–456.
Burrowes, R.D. (1998) ‘The Republic of Yemen: The Politics of Unification and Civil War, 1989–1995’, in Hudson, M.C. (ed.), Middle East Dilemma, The Politics and Economics of Arab Integration. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers, pp. 187–213.
Choisi, J. (2010a) ‘The Turkish Cypriot Elite – Its Social Function and Legitimation’, in Solomou, E. and Faustmann, H. (eds), Colonial Cyprus 1878–1960, Selected Readings. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press, pp. 277–300.
Choisi, J. (2010b) ‘The Greek Cypriot Elite – Its Social Function and Legitimation’, in Solomou, E. and Faustmann, H. (eds), Colonial Cyprus 1878–1960, Selected Readings. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press, pp. 301–334.
Constantinou, C.M. (2007) ‘Aporias of Identity: Bicommunalism, Hybridity and the “Cyprus Problem”’, Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 247–270.
Dingli, S. (2012) ‘Is the Failed State Thesis Analytically Useful? The Case of Yemen’, Politics. Available at [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9256.2012.01453.x/abstract], accessed 15 November 2012.
Esposito, J.L. (2003) The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Finn, T. and Alwazir, A. (2011) ‘A House Divided’, Foreign Policy, 28 November 2011. Available at [http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/28/a_house_divided?page=0,2], accessed 5 September 2012.
Gause III, F.G. (1990) Saudi-Yemeni Relations: Domestic Structures and Foreign Influence. New York: Columbia University Press.
Halliday, F. (1990) Revolution and Foreign Policy, the Case of South Yemen 1967–1987. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hariman, R. and Beer, F.A. (1998) ‘What Would Be Prudent?: Forms of Reasoning in World Politics’, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Fall), pp. 299–330.
Hudson, M.C. (1995) ‘Bipolarity, Rational Calculation and War in Yemen’, in al-Suwaidi, J.S. (ed.), The Yemeni War of 1994, Causes and Consequences. London: Saqi Books, pp. 19–32.
International Crisis Group (2009) ‘Yemen: Defusing the Saada Time Bomb’, Middle East Report No. 86, 27 May 2009. Available at [http://www.observatori.org/paises/pais_64/documentos/86 _yemen___defusing_the_saada_time_bomb.pdf], accessed 20 August 2012.
International Crisis Group (2012) ‘Aphrodite’s Gift: Can Cypriots Gas Power a New Dialogue?’, 2 April 2012. Available at
[http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/europe/turkey-cyprus/cyprus/216-aphrodites-gift-cancypriot-gas-power-a-new-dialogue.pdf], accessed 5 August 2012.
Ismail, S. (2012) ‘Unification in Yemen, Dynamics of Political Integration 1978–2000’. Unpublished Thesis, University of Oxford. Available online at [users.ox.ac.uk/~metheses/ Ismail%20Thesis.pdf], accessed 20 August 2012.
Kambas, M. (2012) ‘Both Sides Would Win from Cyprus Unification’, Reuters, 23 September 2012. Available at [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/23/us-cyprus-un-talks-idUSBRE88M07120120923], accessed 23 November 2012.
Ker-Lindsay, J. (2011) The Cyprus Problem: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ker-Lindsay, J., Faustmann, H. and Mullen, F. (eds) (2011) An Island in Europe: The EU and the Transformation of Cyprus. London: I.B. Tauris.
Kostiner, J. (1996) Yemen the Torturous Quest for Unity, 1990–1994. London: Royal Institute for Foreign Affairs.
Lacher, H. and Kaymak E. (2005) ‘Transforming Identities: Beyond the Politics of Non-Settlement in North Cyprus’, Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 10, No. 2 (July), pp. 147–166.
Machiavelli, N. (1992) The Prince. New York: Dover Publications Inc.
Mallinson, W. (2007) ‘US Interests, British Acquiescence and the Invasion of Cyprus’, The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 494–508.
Mayborn, W. (2011) ‘Creating Turmoil: Why UAV Strikes will be Counter-productive in Yemen’, Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis, Vol. 6, pp. 79–82.
Morgenthau, H.J. (1962) ‘The Demands of Prudence’, Politics in the Twentieth Century Vol. 3: The Restoration of American Politics, pp. 15–18.
Morelli, V. (2012) ‘Cyprus Reunification Proving Elusive’, CRS Report for Congress. Available at [http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41136.pdf], accessed 22 November 2012.
Mouffe, C. (1993) The Return of the Political. London: Verso. O’Connell, M.E. (2011) ‘Seductive Drones: Learning from a Decade of Lethal Operations’, Journal of Law Information and Science, EAP 2. Available at [http://ssrn.com/abstract=1912635], accessed 20 November 2012.
Papadakis, Y. (2008) ‘Narrative, Memory and History Education in Divided Cyprus: A Comparison of Schoolbooks on the “History of Cyprus”’, Memory and History, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Fall/Winter), pp. 128–148.
Papageorgiou, S.P. (2010) ‘The Genesis of the Greek and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus, 1878–1914: A Common March at a Different Pace’, in Solomou, E. and Faustmann, H. (eds), Colonial Cyprus 1878–1960, Selected Readings. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press, pp. 47–56.
Philips, S. (2011) Yemen and the Politics of Permanent Crisis. London: The International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Salmoni, B.A., Loidolt, B. and Wells, M. (2010) Regime and Periphery in Northern Yemen: The Huthi Phenomenon. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
Schmitt. C. (1976) The Concept of the Political. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
ΣΚΑΪ 'Μαθήματα Κυπριακής Ιστορίας', Οι Νεοι Φακελοι [ΣΚΑΪ, ‘Lessons in Cypriot History’, The New Files] [video online], available at [http://folders.skai.gr/main/theme?id=86&locale=el], accessed 20 July 2012.
Stevenson, T.B. (1993) ‘Yemeni Workers Come Home: Re-absorbing One Million Migrants’, Middle East Report, No. 181 (March/April), pp. 15–20.
Tocci, N. (2000) ‘The “Cyprus Question”: Reshaping Identities and Elite Interests within a Wider European Framework’, CFPS Working Document No. 154 (September).
US Department of State (2011) ‘Yemen Executive Summary’, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2011. Available at [http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/186667.pdf], accessed 22 November 2012.
Varnava, A. (2010) ‘Reinterpreting Macmillan’s Cyprus Policy, 1957–1960’, in Solomou, E. and Faustmann, H. (eds), Colonial Cyprus 1878–1960, Selected Readings. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press, pp. 163–192.
Warner, G. (2009) ‘The United States and the Cyprus Crisis of 1974’, International Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 1, pp. 129–143.
Whitaker, B. (1997) ‘National Unity and Democracy in Yemen: A Marriage of Inconvenience’, in Joffè, E.G.H., Hachemi, M.J. and Watkins, E.W. (eds), Yemen Today: Crisis and Solutions. London: Caravel Press, pp. 21–27.
Wolleh, O. (2001) Local Peace Constituencies. Berlin: Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management. Available at [http://www.berghof-conflictresearch.org/documents/publications/br8e.pdf], accessed 20 July 2012.
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“The Politics of (Re)Unification: Lessons from Yemen for Cyprus”. 2017. Cyprus Review 24 (2): 29-26. https://cyprusreview.org/index.php/cr/article/view/133.