The situation in Yemen has been described as the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. And it has taken that human catastrophe for many people to become aware of the small country that hugs the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula. But as Asher Orkaby explains this month, the current conflict has deep roots in how Yemen emerged as a nation, its treatment under British rule, its role during the Cold War, and now as a proxy for tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The fractures within Yemen make this humanitarian crisis one of the most complex to solve.