Aaron Edwards

Aaron Edwards is a senior lecturer in defence and international affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the author of Mad Mitch’s Tribal Law: Aden and the End of Empire (Mainstream/Transworld, 2014). Opinions expressed are his own.

Yemen at war

With a humanitarian crisis mounting in Yemen, Saudi Arabia has eased its military pressure—for the moment.

By Aaron Edwards

/ 15 May 2015

Yemen's frail faultlines

The seizure of power in Sanaa by Houthi rebels has alerted the world to the crisis in Yemen. But it never really went away.

By Aaron Edwards

/ 6 Mar 2015

Yemen: descent into anarchy

With the resignation of its president and prime minister, Yemen lacks the capacity to steer its political transition towards the goal of greater stability. The alternative, however, does not bear thinking about.

By Aaron Edwards

/ 28 Jan 2015

ISIS: the spreading cancer

Sometimes states exaggerate the threat posed by violence from non-state forces. With ISIS in Iraq and Syria, however, the opposite is true: its onward march threatens the region and the international community.

By Aaron Edwards

/ 14 Aug 2014

Yemen: a state born of conflict

Yemen has slipped well down the global agenda—behind Israel-Palestine, Syria and Iraq—but, as security deteriorates, significant international effort is needed to renew its stalled transition.

By Aaron Edwards

/ 26 Jul 2014

Is ISIS on the march in Iraq?

The remarkable resurgence of Sunni-fundamentalist violence in Iraq has taken the west by surprise, yet it is a symptom of the long-evident inability of the Shia-led government there to exercise authority impartially.

By Aaron Edwards

/ 14 Jun 2014

Yemen in the frame, again

The toll of violence in Yemen continues unabated—if largely unreported. And unless the international community engages with its causes and the local parties, so it will remain.

By Aaron Edwards

/ 28 Apr 2014

Yemen’s troubled transition

In Yemen a transition towards a new political dispensation is threatened by Islamist violence, drone strikes, southern secessionism and tribal militancy. But concentrating on the first alone and failing to understand the wider context will not secure it.

By Aaron Edwards

/ 6 Mar 2014