“Only war makes it possible to mobilize all of today’s technical resources while maintaining the property system.”

- Walter Benjamin, 1936

About Helen Lackner

Helen Lackner has worked in all parts of Yemen since the 1970s and lived there for close to 15 years. She has written about the country’s political economy as well as social and economic issues. She works as a freelance rural development consultant in Yemen and elsewhere and is currently also engaged in research on hydro politics in Yemen.

Articles by Helen Lackner

Yemen: where is the transition heading?

Helen Lackner 12 March 2013

The humanitarian situation remains grave. Why doesn’t it receive the attention given to similar situations elsewhere? With over 10 million people hungry, 13 million without access to water and sanitation, 1 million children malnourished, and about 700,000 IDPs and refugees, there is no doubt that there is a need for urgent humanitarian action.

Yemen: can southern separatists break up Yemen?

Helen Lackner 23 October 2012

By mid-2012, those demonstrators supporting a unified democratic Yemen were out-manoeuvred by separatists who now dominate the southern movement both in Aden and in Mukalla, the other main southern city. What are their plans?

Yemen’s National Dialogue: will it succeed?

Helen Lackner 18 October 2012

Eleven months after the signature of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s [GCC] initiative and the formation of the new Government of National Unity and nine months after the election of the interim President, where are we with Yemen's National Dialogue? Things are different this time - but are they any more likely to last?

Yemen’s priorities: feed the starving children or security?

Helen Lackner 24 July 2012

At the beginning of Ramadan 2012, recognition of the urgency of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is welcome, despite being so badly delayed. But who needs help most?

The struggle for security and against terrorism in Yemen: in whose interests?

Helen Lackner 20 July 2012

People perceive that cash and support are available for military and security costs but not for development or humanitarian needs which affect the vast majority of the population on a daily basis.

Yemen’s transition: a model to be followed?

Helen Lackner 19 June 2012

What is actually happening in Yemen? It is either presented as a ‘solution’ which could be a model for Syria, or as a ‘phoney’ change that only conceals continuation of the previous regime

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Europe from the bottom up

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