Uncertain Political and Security Situation Challenges U.s. Efforts to Implement a Comprehensive Strategy in Yemen

According to senior State officials, the overarching U.S. policy goal in Yemen is to create a stable and secure state. To achieve that goal, the U.S. assistance strategy has for years included both a security element focused on counterterrorism activities and a civilian element focused on development activities. In 2009, in response to the increasing economic, social, and political challenges facing Yemen, the U.S. government undertook a comprehensive review of its policy toward Yemen. This review led to a whole-of-government strategy that still includes both security and civilian assistance, but that, according to U.S. officials, is more integrated than in prior years. The strategy seeks to simultaneously address security needs as well as the underlying economic, social, and political grievances that can lead to violent extremism. U.S. officials told us that assistance activities under this strategy have had to adjust to the changing security situation on the ground. Further, officials told us they have recently begun reviewing the strategy itself in light of the political changes under way in Yemen.Since fiscal year 2007, U.S. agencies have allocated more than $642 million in security and civilian assistance to Yemen. Specifically, DOD, State, and USAID have allocated approximately $326 million for security assistance and more than $316 million for civilian assistance. Allocations reached their peak in fiscal year 2010, after a failed bomb attack on a U.S.-bound airline by a Yemeni-trained Nigerian citizen in December 2009. In fiscal year 2011, however, allocations declined sharply due primarily to the political turmoil in Yemen and the difficulty of implementing training and equipping programs in such an environment, according to U.S. officials.