Journal of Defense Management
Open Access

Abstract

Yemen Arabia Infelix

Ahmed A. S. Hashim

When the Roman Empire held sway over much of the Western world and dominated its near abroad, the Romans, quite familiar with this remote region, used to refer to Yemen as ?Arabia Felix,? or Happy Arabia. It would be an understatement to say that this moniker is hardly appropriate to Yemen in contemporary times. Indeed, Yemen has not been a happy place for the longest of times. Like most of its other Arab neighbors it lacks water, unlike most of them it has hardly any oil. It is the poorest country in the Arab world and currently as The Economist so felicitously put it recently: the Arab world?s poorest country is being bombed by its richest, Saudi Arabia.