1. Background to Change in the Yemen Arab Republic 1.1. The Traditional Setting 1.2. Economic Continuity and Change 1.3. Social Dimension 1.4. Political Environment 2. The Politics of the Imamate 2.1. The Role of Personalities and Traditional Elites 2.2. Government and Institutions 2.3. The State, the Hinterland and the Outside World 3. The Process of Political Change 3.1. The Evolution of Political Awareness and Attitudes 3.2. The Transformation of Dissent 3.3. The Experience of Civil War 4. The Political Dynamics of the Republic 4.1. Division and Transformation 4.2. reconciliation and Transition 4.3. The Officers and the Modernists 4.4. Changing Roles and Alliances 5. State-building and Socio-economic Development 5.1. The Problem of Structural Legitimacy 5.2. Strategies for Development 5.3. The Government at the Beginning of the 1980s 6. Dilemmas of the 1980s 6.1. Obstacles to National Cohesion 6.2. Confronting the Obstacles 6.3. Paths Not Taken and the Quest for Legitimacy