The Saudi Arabia-Yemen Border Dispute and the Houthis Issue from the Perspective of Geopolitics

Abstract

Since ancient times, there have always been border disputes between countries and local communities and these border disputes have been the main factor in the emergence of wars and conflicts. In particular, the political borders of the Arabian Peninsula and especially Saudi Arabia were drawn with different wars and treaties after the First World War. Due to this fact and due to reasons such as the imposition of borders, the availability of oil and energy resources, the strategic location of some regions or islands, and the intervention of extra-regional powers, some parts of these borders have not yet been agreed upon and these disagreements have continued to the present day. The most important border dispute in question is the one that is between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Especially with the strengthening of the Houthis, the border dispute went beyond partial conflicts and caused Saudi Arabia to declare war on Yemen. This study will evaluate the effects and consequences of border security on bilateral relations between the two countries by addressing the concept of border and border security. The literature review showed that the problems between Yemen and Saudi Arabia were mostly handled with their sectarian dimensions and that the border dispute was not adequately addressed. The in-depth examination of this topic shows the importance of the article. The case analysis method was used in the article. Case analysis involves examining a particular individual, group, audience, event, policy area or institution for research. Although the case analysis method has been identified with qualitative research, it was thought that it would be more appropriate to apply the case analysis method in both quantitative and qualitative research in this article.

Keywords

• geopolitics
• border security
• saudi arabia
• yemen
• houthis