ABSTRACT
Yemen has never figured in the front rank of US foreign policy interests, even within only the Middle East. Nevertheless, it has occupied a certain and often significant degree of Washington’s attention and concern at almost regular intervals across the last half-century. This has been even more true in the 2000s. Two constants over this entire period have been Washington’s twin focus on Yemen’s impact on Saudi Arabia and the stability of successive Yemeni regimes. All too often, Yemen has been a haven for ideological forces that have been antithetical to US interests.
