Defining Remote Warfare: British Training and Assistance Programmes in Yemen 2004-2015

Between 2004-2015 Britain engaged in capacity building operations across Yemen’s police, military, and intelligence agencies. This briefing seeks to provide a critical review of these efforts, their successes, and the causes of their ultimate failure, in order to identify lessons for future training and assistance missions.

British successes in Yemen were the result of sustained engagement, a willingness to develop training objectives in collaboration with Yemeni colleagues, and the integration of efforts with several institutions. But British strategic objectives diverged from those of Yemen’s ruling elite, and poor coordination across Whitehall caused conflicting policies between military and humanitarian efforts.

This report was first published by Oxford Research Group as part of their Remote Warfare Programme.