For some years now, Yemen has been seeking to join the Gulf Cooperation Council. There are good reasons for thinking this would benefit Yemen, though the GCC states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – also have reasons to be wary. In the long term, though, continued exclusion is likely to cause them a bigger problem.

The US now seems to have put its weight behind the idea of Yemeni membership. In an article for Foreign Policy, Steve Caton of Harvard University argues the case for Yemen to join.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 9 October 2010.