In order to identify why the British government continues their support for the Saudi military operations in the Yemen War, this research focuses on three major British policy areas: (geo)politics,...Show moreIn order to identify why the British government continues their support for the Saudi military operations in the Yemen War, this research focuses on three major British policy areas: (geo)politics, security, and economics. British geopolitical interests in backing the Saudi military operations in Yemen focus on expanding their own regional influence in the Middle East. British relations with Iran influences the British strategy towards the Yemen War, as this was is perceived to be a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, in which the UK engages in substitution warfare to counteract the enlargement of the Iranian sphere of influence. Further security interest of the UK to continue their support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen is to counteract the terrorist presence of the AQAP in Yemen, which fits into a wider trend of British counterterrorism policy. Furthermore, British arms sales to the Saudi army play a role in British security as well as economic interests in the Yemen War. The contested British arms sales to Saudi are continued both to strengthen the Saudi military power and to benefit from the lucrative military arms market. Lastly, this research discusses the influence of the oil market on the British determination to continue their support for Saudi Arabia in the Yemen War, relating to energy security facilitated by Saudi oil.Show less
Since the invention of the nuclear bomb, the way warfare has been conducted has changed drastically and has led to the invention of new strategies to engage in warfare, one of them being proxy wars...Show moreSince the invention of the nuclear bomb, the way warfare has been conducted has changed drastically and has led to the invention of new strategies to engage in warfare, one of them being proxy wars. This thesis clarifies the term proxy war as well as the benefits that come with its usage through the analysis of the news coverage of the Yemeni war from two “Western” news outlets, namely The Guardian and Der Spiegel. The study answers the research question; how Western news coverage makes invisible wars visible and to what extent they do so? To do so, it will look at all the articles issued by both news outlets between March 2019 and March 2022. It will first do a content analysis in which it will contrast the arguments presented in the literature review with the content of the articles and then conduct a discourse analysis with the objective of demonstrating possible intentions that lie behind the news outlets’ coverage of the war. Findings demonstrate that both news outlets succeed in presenting the war in Yemen as a proxy war although they do so in different ways. Moreover, they determine that The Guardian has an intention of influencing its readership’s opinion about the war through the denunciation of the UK’s involvement in Yemen and the description of the war as a humanitarian catastrophe. The conclusion of this thesis underlines the responsibility news outlets have when informing about war because of their ability to uncover hidden interests and power plays between states and non-state actors that other ways would be hidden.Show less
