Yemen, al-Qaida, and the Jihadi Threat

The Caravan

Elisabeth Kendall, a scholar of Arabic and jihadism at Oxford University, joins the podcast to discuss the state of the jihadi threat in Yemen, a country she knows well. The local franchises of al-Qaida and the Islamic State are weakened but continue to pose a significant threat. As Kendall argues, conditions in Yemen favor an al-Qaida resurgence. How have these groups changed over time and where are they headed? How do the jihadis fit on the political map of the ongoing Yemeni civil war? Would a ceasefire in the war diminish the jihadi threat or, perversely, fuel it?