The Yemeni War-to-Violence Transition

Sammanfattning: In November 2011, at the brink of state failure the United Nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council brokered a deal with the Yemeni government for the implementation of a democratic transition towards peace. The Yemeni people, tired of the authoritarian regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh greeted the initiative and the opportunity of finally getting to shape the Yemeni state in their favor. But even though the transition had a promising design and was regarded as one of the most inclusive processes of peacebuilding ever performed, the transition failed and during its implementation violence in Yemen increased rapidly. This thesis tries to explain this contradictory development by tracking implications for causal mechanism in three processes: the National Dialogue Conference, the Election and the Security Sector Reform. The analysis concludes that the process of the National Dialogue Conference failed in delivering results to the Yemeni people, creating a rift between transitional politics and the situation on the ground. Therefore, this process is viewed as the major causal mechanism for the increased violence. Overall the interaction of all three processes jointly contributed to the violent development making this study a prof on how hard it is to implement democracy on war-torn societies without risking making the situation even worse.