Yemen, in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has often escaped of regional and international attention. And yet its history illuminates some of the most important issues at play in the modern Middle East: from Cold War rivalries to the growth of Islamic extremism in the 1990s, and from the rise of al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula in the post-9 11 period to Obama-era drone strikes. Uzi Rabi looks at this country and its economic and political history through the prism of the idea of state failure. He examines Yemen's trajectory from revolutions and civil war in the 1960s to unification in the 1990s and on to the 2011 uprisings which eventually saw the fall from power of Abdullah Saleh in 2012. Accessibly written, this book is vital for those looking at the history of Yemen in the twentieth century