Review: Third World: Revolution and Foreign Policy
| Author | Stephen Page |
| Published date | 01 June 1992 |
| Date | 01 June 1992 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070209204700215 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
452
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
REVOLUTION
AND
FOREIGN
POLICY
The
case
of
South
Yemen
1967-1987
Fred
Halliday
New
York:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1990,
xvi,
315pp,
US$
5
4.
5o
This
is
an
excellent
book,
the more
interesting
because
the
author
was
one
of
those
very
few
Western
scholars
who were
able
to
travel
to South
Yemen
in
the
i96os
and
197os,
and
therefore
to
collect
data
and
impressions
at
first
hand.
Nevertheless, it
is
not of interest
merely
to
those
among
us
who
are
fascinated
by
South
Yemen;
the
author's
orig-
inal
scholarly
interest
(this
is
his
doctoral
dissertation)
was
in
revolu-
tionary states
in
the
Third
World,
and
he has
examined
South
Yemen
as
a
case-study
in
comparative
analysis
of
the
foreign
policy
of
these
states.
Through
several
themes,
he
examines
questions
underlying
pol-
icy
decisions
in
all
such
states:
the
impact
on policy
of
external,
mostly
hostile, forces;
the
need
for
strategic
allies
and
the
problems of
auton-
omy
in
the
face
of
this need;
the
impact
of factional
divisions
in
the
domestic
revolutionary
movement;
the impact
on
policy
of
a
commit-
ment
to
revolution
in
neighbouring
states;
and
the
manner
in
which
the
revolutionary
state
compromises
over
time,
balancing
its
commit-
ment
to
revolutionary
change
with
its
growing
need
to
mend
fences
with
its
neighbours.
The
exposition and
analysis
of
the
latter
two
factors,
in
my
mind,
is
the
most
interesting
thread
running
through
the
book.
They
repre-
sent
a
dynamic
tension
which
seems
to
be
common
to
all
revolutionary
Third
World
states;
and
they
are most
effectively
highlighted
in
both
foreign
and
domestic
policy
in
South
Yemen.
They
are
as
well
the
two
unifying
themes
of
South
Yemen
political
life.
This
was
a
state
which,
although
one
of
the
poorest
in
the
world,
chose
a
foreign
policy
which
ensured
the
hostility
of
its
wealthy
aid-giving
regional
neighbours.
It
was
a
state
which
internationalized
its
revolution
by
engaging the
inter-
est
of
the
superpowers
for
both
ideological
and
defensive
reasons.
In
its
brief
(22
years)
independent
existence, it
was
in
constant turmoil;
for-
eign
policy
and
domestic
politics
constantly
interacted
to
intensify
fac-
tional
battles,
to
change
leaders,
to
produce
regional conflict.
Over
time,
however,
as
in
other
such
states,
turmoil
produced
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