244 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos Núm. 1/ 2013 DRONE ATTACKS CAMPAIGN IN YEMEN The use of unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) has become an increasingly attractive option for the White House. It makes it possible to carry out armed interventions with a lower military profile, without creating barely any political debate and causing a small amount of social opposition.1 It is also in line with the principle of avoiding commitments that entail the prolonged presence of troops on the ground: an axiom of the current Obama Administration, also supported by academic figures of the standing of John Mearsheimer.2 The increasingly prevalent use of armed drones is consistent with what Edward Luttwak, in the 1990’s, called the paradigm of post-heroic war (which was again supported by the unsatisfactory experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan).3 This also easily fits in with the current Revolution in Military Affairs, and it could even be the seed of a future RMA.4 In recent years, CIA drone strikes in Pakistan have stolen most of the limelight about this topic. However, the actions carried out in Yemen have gone unnoticed for many years. In 2012, there was almost equality in number of these with the ones carried out in the Pakistani tribal areas: 46 air attacks in Pakistan and 42 in Yemen. The shortage of information and the difficulty in comparing it, prevent the necessary rigour being applied in preparing a piece of research that might explain the Yemen campaign. For this reason, the nature of this article is basically descriptive in recounting the facts, and it is exploratory in its hypothesis and its conclusions. The presentation is divided into three sections: causes, main characteristics and strategic consequences of the campaign of American air strikes in Yemen. We start with the reasons that have given rise to the campaign. These are namely: the transnational threat of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the strengthening of that organisation in Yemen. 1 This article is framed within the research project CSO2010-17849 “The organisational structure of international terrorism: Analysis of its evolution and its implications for European security”, which is financed by the 2008-2011 R+D+I National Plan. 2 Klaidman, Daniel, Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012); Mearsheimer, John, “Pull Those Boots Off the Ground”, Newsweek, December 28, 2008. 3 Luttwak, Edward N. “Give War a Chance”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 78, No. 4, (1999), pp. 36-44 4 Jordán, Javier and Baqués, Josep, Guerra de drones. Política, tecnología y cambio social en los nuevos conflictos Drones War. Policy, technology and social change in new conflicts, (Biblioteca Nueva: Madrid, 2013) (in press).
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