Yemen's President Forms a New Government

The composition of Yemen's new technocratic reconciliation government reveals President Abd Rabboh Mansour Hadi's strategy for ruling the country. In crafting the new government, Hadi is attempting to play his rivals off one another by ensuring two things: that no one power center emerges as the country's predominant political or military force, and that each actor maintains a stake in preserving a certain level of internal stability. This strategy, which formed the cornerstone of the former regime's survival, will increasingly limit the central government's ability to extend authority into the country's hinterlands and pass much-needed political reform. However, it will also likely ensure the regime's survival and prevent the country from slipping into all-out civil war, at least for the time being.

The Saudis, who are easily the most important foreign actors in Yemen, have a strong interest in preserving this complex balance of power to avoid seeing a complete loss of central authority in Sanaa lead to violence or sectarian tension that could spill across Riyadh's southwestern border. The new Yemeni government faces a number of serious challenges ahead as the country's regional actors try to push Sanaa into making political concessions, both in Cabinet selections and during the difficult process of creating a new constitution. Despite this pressure, Hadi's attempts to balance his country's competing interests will forestall the disintegration of the Yemeni state for the foreseeable future, though underlying regional competition will continue to simmer.