Yemen model

The situation in Yemen as of December 2015:

  Controlled by Houthis and Saleh loyalists

  Controlled by Hadi loyalists

  Controlled by al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia

The Yemen Model has been the rubric for the Obama Administration's attempts to neutralize foreign terrorist groups hostile to the United States.

Strategy

President Obama has often cited the Yemen Model as his vision for dealing with insurgent groups.^[1][2]

Under the Yemen Model, the United States provides weapons, logistics, transportation and cash to a local proxy force, while committing no or few US troops.^[3] The United States will also carry out air strikes and targeted killings of suspected opposition leaders. Occasionally, intelligence sharing and cruise missile strikes will also come from America.

Naming

Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, President of Yemen from 2012-2015 and America's man in Sana'a

The model was named after the conduct of the America's continuing conflict in Yemen. America needed to minimize the ability of the powerful Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group to attack the American homeland, while at the same time, the Obama Administration wanted to commit as few resources to the fight as possible.^[4]

The US picked a proxy force (in this case, tribes allied with government leader Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi), armed and trained them, and used them as a ground force against Al-Qaeda factions in exchange for US aid to the regime, totaling more than $600 million.^[5] The United States also conducted a significant low-tempo air and drone campaign starting in 2009. The US also occasionally launched commando raids inside Yemen and did base some military personnel in and around al-Annad air base in the south of the country.^[6]

The Obama Administration has often defended its actions in Yemen as effective, and a model for other conflicts.^[7][8][9]

Other American conflicts

During the early stages of the current American conflict in Iraq, Obama cited the Yemen Model as the inspiration for the conduct of the war.^[10][11] He went so far as to mention Yemen as a model for surcess during his first speech about the new war in September 2014.^[12]

The Administration has also defended its efforts in Somalia as an outgrowth of the strategy.^[13]

See also

• Obama Administration position on combat drones

References