The Foreign Service Journal, February 2010

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 Laden’s secretary. A year ago, the or- ganization changed its name to al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, and in August conducted the first known assassination attempt against a member of the Saudi royal family. This is the latest phase of its campaign to overthrow the Saudi monarchy, launched in 2003 ( www. reuters.com ) . The country itself is in turmoil. The civil war between north and south that raged during the 1960s and flared again in 1994 was never truly resolved. The government is weak, with elites locked in battles for power. Saudi Ara- bia’s constant intervention into the Shi’ite revolt in the north is of ques- tionable value. A secessionist cam- paign is ongoing in the south. Some experts, such as Gregory Johnsen, predict that 2010 may be the year Yemen finally blows apart ( www. foreignpolicy.com ) . Others, such as Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib, still see the Yemeni government as an effective and reliable ally in con- taining the dangers ( www.wsj.com ) . Calls for U.S. intervention are in the air, as well as cautionary warnings. The issues are complex; the players are not all well understood; and the physical and cultural terrain is difficult. The need of the hour is information and background on this new crisis spot. Fortunately, the Internet makes that available. Among the many resources avail- able, the Council on Foreign Relations has a useful summary of the current situation, as well as a number of excel- lent background studies ( www.cfr. org ). The Council on Strategic and International Studies also has signifi- cant background material, in particu- lar on Saudi Arabia’s involvement ( www.csis.org ) . And, for a basic primer on Yemen, consult the State Department’s background briefing ( www.state.gov ) . ■ This edition of Cybernotes was com- piled by Senior Editor Susan Brady Maitra. C Y B E R N O T E S WWW.FSJOURNAL.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. Click on the Marketplace tab on the marquee AFSA Legacy www.afsa.org AKA stay-aka.com Clements International clements.com Cort Furniture cort1.com Diplomatic Auto. Sales diplosales.com Fox Hill foxhillseniorcondominium.com Hirshorn Company, The hirshorn.com Property Specialists www.propertyspecialistsinc.com SDFCU sdfcu.org Strategic Studies Quarterly au.af.mil/au/ssq WJD wjdpm.com Site of the Month: http://trailblazing.royalsociety.org/ To celebrate its 350th birthday, the British Royal Society has unveiled an interac- tive feature, “Trailblazing,” on its Web site, highlighting landmark moments in the history of science from 1600 to the present. The Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions , the world’s oldest continuously published scientific journal, contain many historic documents— from the earliest ex- periments in blood transfusion and van Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of “little animals” in water, to Sir Isaac Newton’s pioneering research on light and color and the write- up of Benjamin’s Franklin’s famous kite-flying experiment on lightning, and on to Stephen Hawking’s early writings on black holes. ‘Trailblazing” brings together 60 such seminal documents, situating them in the context of a timeline that also marks historic events. Each exhibit contains a brief ex- planatory overview of the subject, along with one or more images and a PDF file of the original Phil. Trans. article. Simple and user-friendly, “Trailblazing” is an educational resource for students of any age, as well as a mine of thought-provoking material for anyone curious about the world in which we live.