Yemen: Running Updates Thread: Houthi fighters backed by tanks reach central Aden--

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17. Yemen’s war reflects a new regional era

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This era may be ending now, and Yemen is its exclamation point. The situation there is not occurring in a vacuum or without warning. One of the most dramatic developments during the Arab uprisings and consequent civil wars (Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen) of the past four years has been the steady increase in military actions across the region by the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council states.

These conservative states historically worked discreetly and indirectly to achieve their diplomatic goals, which focused mainly on preserving a status quo across the region that did not disrupt prevailing patterns of energy flows, conservative governance, and American-Western dominance, or at least prevalence.

The war in Yemen signals the end – at least for now – of GCC discretion. It also probably marks the start of what should be an exciting, complex and protracted process by which the surviving regional Arab and Islamic powers (mainly Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran, with Egypt aspiring to regain a role on Saudi coattails) negotiate new relationships that could shape a historic security architecture for the region for years to come.

This reconfiguration of the roles of indigenous regional powers will help to address the two other dimensions of violence, turbulence and uncertainty we have endured in many parts of the Middle East, since 1990. First, the fragmentation and incoherence of domestic identity and authority; and second, the inconsistent roles of global powers, mainly the U.S. and Russia, but also comprising aspects of European and Chinese policies.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2015/Apr-01/292867-yemens-war-reflects-a-new-regional-era.ashx