Arab SpringThe Arab Spring (ar-rabīʻ al-ʻarabī) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies.
Anti-AmericanismAnti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment and Americanophobia) is a term that can describe several sentiments and positions including opposition to, fear of, distrust of, prejudice against or hatred toward the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general. Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centre in Australia suggests that "anti-Americanism" cannot be isolated as a consistent phenomenon, since the term originated as a rough composite of stereotypes, prejudices, and criticisms which evolved into more politically-based criticisms.
MaribMarib (Maʾrib; Old South Arabian: 𐩣𐩧𐩨/𐩣𐩧𐩺𐩨 Mryb/Mrb) is the capital city of Marib Governorate, Yemen. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Sabaʾ (سَبَأ), which some scholars believe to be the ancient Sheba of biblical fame. It is about east of Yemen's modern capital, Sanaa, and is in the region of the Sarawat Mountains. In 2005 it had a population of 16,794. However, in 2021, it had absorbed close to a million refugees fleeing the Yemeni Civil War. Sabaeans The Sabaean kingdom was based around Marib, with territory in northern Yemen.
John KerryJohn Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the administration of Barack Obama and represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1985 to 2013. Kerry was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in the 2004 election, losing to incumbent President George W.
Human shieldA human shield is a non-combatant (or a group of non-combatants) who either volunteers or is forced to shield a legitimate military target in order to deter the enemy from attacking it. The concept of human shields as a resistance measure was created by Mahatma Gandhi as a weapon of resistance. On the other hand, the weaponization of civilians has also developed as a tactic by some non-state actors like ISIS.
YemenYemen (ˈjɛmən; al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. It is located in the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast. It shares maritime borders with Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia. Covering and having a coastline of approximately , Yemen is the second-largest Arab sovereign state on the Arabian Peninsula. Sanaa is its constitutionally stated capital and largest city. The country's population is estimated to be 34.
Bahrain'Bahrain (bɑːˈreɪn ; bæxˈreɪn; al-Baḥrayn, locally æl baħˈreːn), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain', is an island country in West Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island which makes up around 83 per cent of the country's landmass. Bahrain is situated between Qatar and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia, to which it is connected by the King Fahd Causeway.
Islamic StateThe Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; ˈaɪsᵻl), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS; ˈaɪsᵻs), and by its Arabic acronym Da'ish or Daesh (داعش, Dāʿish, ˈdaːʕɪʃ), is a transnational militant Islamist terrorist group and former unrecognized quasi-state that follows the Salafi jihadist branch of Sunni Islam. It was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 1999 and gained global prominence in 2014, when it captured a large amount of Iraqi territory, and took advantage of the civil war in Syria to take control of chunks of territory in Eastern Syria.
JihadismJihadism is a neologism for militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West. It has been applied to various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations whose ideologies are based on the Islamic notion of jihad. It has also been applied to various Islamic empires in history, such as the Umayyad Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire, who extensively campaigned against non-Muslim nations in the name of jihad.
SanaaSanaa (صَنْعَاء, Ṣanʿāʾ sʕɑnʕaːʔ, Yemeni Arabic: ˈsʕɑnʕɑ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 Ṣnʿw), also spelled Sanaʽa and Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governorate, but forms the separate administrative district of ʾAmānat al-ʿĀṣimah (أَمَانَة ٱلْعَاصِمَة). According to the Yemeni constitution, Sanaa is the capital of the country, although the seat of the Yemeni government moved to Aden, the former capital of South Yemen in the aftermath of the Houthi occupation.