by Lian Slayford-Wei

Created on: June 12, 2010

The Yemen Arab Republic, 1962 – 1990

On the 22nd May 1990, the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) performed their old promise to join into a single Re-public of Yemen, just three years after the YAR celebrated its silver jubilee in 1987.

The YAR, also known as North Yemen, shared half of its landward border with Saudi Arabia, and to a great extent of this border in the east and northeast, principally in desert regions is undemarcated.

North Yemen was full of tribal organizations, forces that played significant roles in national politics as well as in culture and social circles. “Despite the tendency to categorize the Zaydi highlands as "tribal" and the Shafici areas to the south and along the coast as "peasant," tribes and trib-alism are part of the sociopolitical landscape of all regions of North Yemen. Nevertheless, what has distinguished the highlands from the other areas for centuries is the greater importance of the tribe as a unit of identification and action as well as the greater extent to which the tribes could be mobilized and organized into large tribal confederations-namely, the age-old Hashid and Bakil confederations”.

There were three distinct phases in North Yemen’s republican period: the Sallal era (1962-67) under the leadership of President Abdullah al-Sallal; a 10-year transition period (1967-77), distinguished by the end of both the Egyptian military presence and the civil war; and the Salih era, a period “now identified with both the long tenure of President Ali Abdullah Salih and the change from political turmoil and economic uncertainty at its beginning to political stability and the prospect of oil-based development and prosperity in more recent year”.

The YAR’s 28 year old history ended in 1990 when the Republic of Yemen was established with President Salih calling the shots. Since 1962, there were numerous political and socioeconomic changes that took place, many good and some bad. Many of the more positive changes occurred in the since the YAR's 15th anniversary in 1977. This was a time of transition highlighted with economic good fortune and fundamental moves. Its ability to grow, expand and gain prosperity happened due to the transition phase it experienced in the 1970s.

But as one scholar states, “while it is likely that the past work done will help more than it will hinder, the precise balance between positives and negatives and the way they combine to produce that result remain to be seen”.

Bibliography:

Burrowes, Robert D. (1991) Prelude to Unification: The Yemen Arab Republic, 1962 – 1990, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Cambridge University Press.

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