Glocal
Asymmetric Warfare &
Ordnances’ Supply Chains
Strategic
Trajectories to Stop Arms Deployments in Yemen
Public Lecture – Respublica
Litereria - RL Vol XIII No 418 MMXIX
Costantinos Berhutesfa
Costantinos, PhD
Professor of Public
Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms
Abstract
The Munich Security Report, 2019,
underlines, ‘looking at the current state of international affairs it is
difficult to escape the feeling that the world is not just witnessing a series
of smaller and bigger crises. Rather, the entire liberal international order appears
to be falling apart – nothing will we be as it once was’. The rise of asymmetric
warfare associated with guerrilla
warfare, insurgency, terrorism, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, is an
existential threat. The qualitative
methodology in the assessment of weaponising asymmetric warfare address a
knowledge gap predicated on advancing innovative paradigms for glocal
‘counter-terrorism’. Does glocal battle against asymmetric warfare enter
societies as an external ideology, constructing and deploying its concepts in
sterile abstraction from local beliefs and values? Does it come into play in
total opposition to, or in cooperation with historic values and sentiments? The
flood of western weaponry is fuelling a conflict that has killed tens of thousands
and pushed millions more to the brink of famine, a clear and present danger of
a biblical famine engulfing Yemen. The coalition partners fighting Yemeni
Houthis have also ‘transferred’ weapons to ‘hard line militias in Yemen, in
violation of their agreements with the arms suppliers (CNN). The weapons have
also made their way into the hands of rebels battling the coalition for control
of the country, exposing some of the West’s sensitive military technology to ‘terrorists’
and potentially endangering the lives of their own troops in other conflict
zones. Although Yemen’s President Hadi says ‘a solution in Yemen’s civil war
will likely come through military rather than political means, history tells us
something different. By late 1965, Egypt had sent 70,000 troops in Yemen. It
failed. On top of its military humiliation and financial bankruptcy, Egypt’s
international reputation suffered, with the UN condemning the use of banned
chemical weapons against Yemeni villages. With a world awash with plenty of deadly
ordnances and weapon systems at the hands of asymmetric warfare, the
international community to coordinate with each other to cut off the supply
chain of funds and weapons to terrorists and prevent them from coming back, in
order to consolidate counter-terrorism achievements. Most observers agree that
there is no military solution to the conflict. After almost four years of war,
the Saudi-backed forces have failed to penetrate the populous western highlands
of Yemen where the capital is located. Only
a ceasefire and peace negotiations, can bring peace. The crisis is
an internal, multi-party conflict that started after the Arab Spring, 2011. It
is rooted in the expectations of the people for change, and growing opposition
to the corrupt regimes. Nonetheless, outsiders have thrown a monkey wrench into
the heart of Arab politics, flustering the terms of engagement and thrown the
centre of gravity of the Gulf’s politics into a centripetal implosion.
Key words: al Qaeda, asymmetric warfare, The Coalition, The Gulf, Western weaponry, Yemen,
See paper here or https://www.academia.edu/38507121/Glocal_Asymmetric_Warfare_and_Ordnances_Supply_Chain_RL_Vol_XIII_No_418_MMXIX.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment