In this new weekly series, "From the WPR Archives," published on Fridays, we aim to highlight articles published in World Politics Review in the past that shed light on issues currently in the headlines. The articles cited in "From the WPR Archives" require a World Politics Review subscription to read in full. To try a subscription free for 30 days, with no further obligation, sign up here.
Last week, Yemen was all over the news as it came to light that the Nigerian man who attempted to detonate an explosive aboard a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Dec. 25 had connections to an al-Qaida franchise -- al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP -- in Yemen. As such, our first installment of "From the Archives" featured four articles on the political and security situation in Yemen.
This week, the repercussions of what has unfortunately come to be called the "underpants bomber" incident are still dominating international headlines like no other single story. However, the focus, especially in U.S. media, has shifted toward the U.S. government's intelligence and homeland security capabilities, and the results of an Obama administration review of the government's failure to share and connect relevant information that would have prevented the attacker from boarding a plane bound for the United States.