Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on nomenclature
- Note on transliteration
- Outline Chronology
- Introduction: The foreign relations of South Yemen
- 1 Development of foreign policy: through the first decade
- 2 The Yemeni Socialist Party: ‘normalisation’ and factional conflict
- 3 The advanced capitalist countries
- 4 The enigmas of Yemeni ‘unity’
- 5 Regional orientations: ‘solidarity’ and accommodation
- 6 In search of allies: the USSR and China
- Conclusions: revolution and foreign policy
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Middle East Library
2 - The Yemeni Socialist Party: ‘normalisation’ and factional conflict
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on nomenclature
- Note on transliteration
- Outline Chronology
- Introduction: The foreign relations of South Yemen
- 1 Development of foreign policy: through the first decade
- 2 The Yemeni Socialist Party: ‘normalisation’ and factional conflict
- 3 The advanced capitalist countries
- 4 The enigmas of Yemeni ‘unity’
- 5 Regional orientations: ‘solidarity’ and accommodation
- 6 In search of allies: the USSR and China
- Conclusions: revolution and foreign policy
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Middle East Library
Summary
The presidencies of ˓Abd al-Fattāḥ Ismā ˓īl and ˓Alī Nāṣir Muḥammad
The defeat of Sālim Rubiyya˓ ˓Alī and the establishment of the YSP seemed, at first sight, to introduce a new, more stable, phase in the postindependence evolution of South Yemen. With the transformation of the NLF into a centralised ‘scientific’ socialist party, on the Soviet model, and the resolution of the main division within the leadership itself, the transformation begun in the early 1970s appeared to be complete. South Yemen faced the second decade of independence with a clear leadership strategy, and a more structured and comprehensive relationship with its main ally, the USSR. These prospects were, however, to be subject to severe strain in the years ahead. While the overall alliance with the USSR survived, as did the YSP regime itself, the pressures of regional issues, intersecting with continued factionalism in Aden, were to subject the relationship with Moscow to considerable strain, and to place the future of the whole regime in jeopardy.
At first, this process of strengthening USSR-PDRY links seemed to be continuing successfully in the period after the YSP Congress. In June 1979 the PDRY acquired observer status with Comecon and in September 1979 Soviet Premier Kosygin visited Aden. In October President ˓Abd al-Fattāḥ Ismā˓īl visited Moscow and signed a Twenty- Year Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation with the USSR, as well as new agreements on economic and technical co-operation and on CPSUYSP relations.
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- Revolution and Foreign PolicyThe Case of South Yemen, 1967–1987, pp. 34 - 60Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990