From Hybrid Security Arrangements to Good Enough SSR in Yemen

This CARPO Brief examines how security governance in protracted conflicts is increasingly shifting from ambitious state-building reforms toward the management of fragmented security environments through ‘hybrid security arrangements.’ Using Yemen as a case study, it analyzes the Supreme Military Committee, the Yemen Maritime Security Partnership, and emerging counterterrorism coordination mechanisms to show how domestic and international actors coordinate security functions despite ongoing political fragmentation. The paper argues that effective stabilization requires balancing short-term management of fragmentation with the long-term goal of strengthening legitimate state institutions. Hybrid security arrangements can serve as transitional mechanisms that preserve stability, reduce violence, and gradually rebuild state authority where comprehensive reform is unrealistic.