Media Coverage

Yemen’s Cease-fire Is Challenging Popular Notions of How Wars End

While offering relief the cease-fire raises questions about the efficacy of diplomatic negotiations versus military strategies in resolving conflicts.

Date Published
18 Apr 2022
Author
Erica Gaston
Armed Houthi fighters attend the funeral procession of Houthis who were killed in recent clashes with the Yemeni government, in Sanaa, Yemen, Nov. 24, 2021

In April 2022, the lead U.N. representative for Yemen announced a two-month cease-fire, the first major breakthrough since 2015 in the conflict between the Houthi rebels and Iran on the one side and the Yemeni government and its Gulf backers on the other. The news was a ray of hope in an otherwise unremittingly troubling international context.

Or was it?

While offering relief to Yemenis dependent on humanitarian aid, the cease-fire raises questions about the efficacy of diplomatic negotiations versus military strategies in resolving entrenched conflicts. Despite international norms favoring negotiated settlements, recent events in Yemen, along with Afghanistan and Syria, suggest that military might often prevails over diplomacy, challenging traditional notions of conflict resolution.

This UNU-CPR article published in World Politics Review calls for a reassessment of international approaches to stalled conflicts in light of these developments.

Read the full article here.