Yemeni Reflections on Guantanamo and American Efforts for Political Reform in the Arab World

Abstract

The shroud of secrecy that the American administration has wrapped around Guantanamo Bay creates a kind of Rorschach test of political views that tell us much more about those holding these views than about the prison and interrogation center itself. But for those less interested in political propaganda, a review of statements on Guantanamo in the Arab country of Yemen reveals some interesting contradictions and complexities. Yemeni statements on Guantanamo reflect contemporary tensions in people's conceptions of national sovereignty, the political interests of a weak state in global geopolitics and a developing conception of human rights in an emerging global social modernity.