Empty Threats and Aid Weaponization: Understanding the International Response to Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

ABSTRACT Since 2015, international aid organizations have delivered over $23 billion in assistance to alleviate Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Complicating this effort, however, is the fact that aid organizations must coordinate aid delivery with the Houthis, the de facto authority ruling 70 percent of Yemen’s population. Rather than allowing aid organizations to operate without interference, the Houthis have restricted their operations and weaponized aid for political purposes. This comes despite aid organizations’ threats to withhold assistance from the Houthis. Why do the Houthis continue to weaponize aid despite pressure and condemnation from the very organizations upon which they depend for assistance? I argue that the structure of humanitarian relief efforts makes it difficult for aid organizations to credibly threaten to cut off assistance to the Houthis, and that these empty threats do little to deter Houthi bad behavior. In developing this argument, this article contributes both to our understanding of the politics of Yemen’s civil war, as well as to theoretical conversations about the relationship between rebel groups and international actors.