Constructivism is a viewpoint of philosophical nature about knowledge. Constructivism has influenced and has been used in various disciplines such as education, psychology, the history of science and sociology. As constructivism began it examined the interaction and relation of the experiences human beings had and the behavior patterns or reflexes that were associated or developed with these experiences. Jean Piaget has termed schemes to be the referred systems of knowledge in constructivism (Martinez, 2015). The scheme I which Piaget refers to are concepts in which people relate to such as humans referring to a parent or a car. They possess different schemes or viewpoints of describing these things.
Jean Piaget is credited with formalizing constructivism based on a perspective of being within a human. Piaget was able to articulate the mechanisms which are utilized as individuals gain ideas and information from the environment, understand and interact with it then form structures within them (Mazzett & Kirkpatrick, 2015). This process describes the foundations in which human beings develop internally which form structures that enable them to understand a situation based on ideas they have, the environment they are in and the information in which they synthesize at that moment in time (Kube, 2016). Piaget came up with two processes which are essential in the interactions which humans have as they form these structures. They are accommodation and assimilation. In assimilation, individuals gain new information and after understanding it they attach it to structures which had been previously formed without changing the structures themselves (Loveluck, 2015). In accommodation, the mental representation of the world to an individual is reframed so that it can fit any new experiences. Radical constructivism was developed by Ernst von Glasersfeld based on the Piaget theory of learning (Kube, 2016).
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In radical constructivism it is stated that human beings are not able to overcome the conditions which limit them from receiving input. Communal constructivism is based on the premise that experts who lead in various fields are in a position to work together to broaden the knowledge and achievements in a specific field. This means that experts can work together and harness their expertise to grow a specific field by challenging all the problems that face at that moment in time (Loveluck, 2015). There are several educators and psychologists who have questioned the central claims that lie within constructivism. They say that the constructivism theories are misleading because they confuse people. They also claim that these constructivism theories go against facts which are already known.
Saudi Arabia and Yemen are two countries which at one moment in time had good relations and cooperated closely in terms of economic, cultural and military issues. The relations between Saudi Arabia and Yemen took a different turn after a civil war broke out Yemen. The civil war that is ongoing in Yemen has caused there to be realignment of power in the Middle East region (Kube, 2016). This has been evident with the emergence some Islamic radical groups and Al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia in response to the Yemen civil war and other radical Islamic groups including Al Qaeda led a military advance to intervene in the Yemen civil war. They did this together with a coalition that had nine member states. The advance into Yemen by Saudi Arabia was also supported by the United States logistically (Mazzett & Kirkpatrick, 2015). They did this by having in place airstrikes which were targeting Yemen. The United States also commenced an aerial and naval blockade on the Yemen borders so that they would be able to support the government that was currently in power and was led by Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi as they fought against the rebelling Houthis.
The relations between Saudi Arabia and Yemen can be dated back to 1803. During this time Saudi Arabian forces attacked the Zaydi Imamate territory. They were assisted by some of the local tribes of Yemen in this attack. In this attack the Saudis were able to win and they took over the Tihama region where they maintained control until 1818 (Almasmari, 2011). The Saudis lost their control after the forces of Ottoman khedive of Egypt destroyed them. There was a protectorate established over the Idrisi sultanate in Asir (Borger, 2015). This protectorate was seen as biased and clashed between Imam Yahya of Yemen and Ibn Saud. Imam Yahya was able to gain control over the oasis of Najran and Ibn Saud was able to capture Asir. Negotiations which occurred between these two individuals were not fruitful. The Saudis were able to gain back control of Najran and they later expanded their territory to occupy the coastal plains for about 100 kilometers in 1948 (Kadhim, 2013). The Saudi Arabian Country aided Imam Ahmed which included the constitutional nature while an uprising was happening in Yemen. The Saudi Arabian government started building a wall of cement filled pipeline in 2003 in order to control the incursions of Yemen citizens into their Country (Almasmari, 2011). This measure was also implemented to ensure that the Saudis were able to slow the inflow of terrorists into their Country. The Yemeni government complained that the building of the wall by the Saudis violated a treaty the two nations had agreed to in 2000.
Ali Abdulla Saleh is a politician of Yemen origin who came to power after President al-Ghashmi was assassinated (Kadhim, 2013). He was elected to be President of Northern Yemen in 1978. President Saleh then became the President of Yemen after Northern and Southern Yemen became one combined state (Kube, 2016). He was able to oversee the development in his Country in achieving better relations with the Western powers in their fight against terrorism especially with the United States. As Saleh was in office there was a wake of the Arab Spring in Yemen and it became untenable. This caused him to be ousted as the Yemen President in 2012. Saleh has been linked to the Houthis and this has led to the civil war in Yemen (Borger, 2015). The civil war has had an insurgency that captured the Yemen capital and led to the current President to flee. There are various government forces and tribesmen who were loyal to Saleh. They joined the Houthis rebels to fight the Saudi military coalition.
The military intervention that was spearheaded by the Saudis so that they would be able to influence the outcome of the civil war in Yemen was code named Operation Decisive Storm. It was supposed to help increase the odds of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi retaining power. The Saudi participation began with bombings on the Houthi rebels (Kube, 2016). It was later followed by troops on the ground in Yemen and a naval block around its borders. The United States gave logistics and intelligence support which among other factors included downed coalition pilots search and rescue and aerial refueling. The civil war in Yemen caused there to be an increase in the sale of weapons between coalition states (Martinez, 2015). The British and US military had troops deployed in the control and command center which led Saudi airstrikes in Yemen. The Pakistan parliament voted to remain neutral after they were called upon by Saudi Arabia to join the coalition in attacking Yemen (Soliman & Styan, 2016). In 2015 the coalition led by the Saudi Arabians announced that Operation Decisive Storm had come to an end and they would change their approach to using a political process from military operations (Kadhim, 2013). Saudi Arabia would also partner with its coalition members in launching peace and political efforts which they referred to as Operation Restoring Hope. The efforts of using peaceful and political strategies to end the Yemen civil war did not cancel out the use of force. The coalition mentioned that it would respond using force to threats that were posed by Houthis and they would prevent them from operating in Yemen. Qatar was banned from being part of the team due to this crisis (Kube, 2016).
The Yemen civil war was received with a lot of criticism and had a very bad effect on the humanitarian situation which led the level reaching a humanitarian catastrophe or humanitarian disaster. The United Nations Human Rights Watch and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen determined that the Saudi led airstrikes which were launched in Yemen on Saada city breached international law. This happened after the coalition which was led by the Saudi Arabians targeted the Saada Governorate as a military target. The United Nations after this declared Yemen to be a level three emergency level (Snyder, 2016). This emergency level was the highest to ever be witnessed for a six month period. There were various human rights groups which put blame on the coalition led be the Saudi Arabians repeatedly because they destroyed infrastructure, health centers and killed civilians through the airstrikes they had on Yemen. The naval blockade which was present during the Yemen civil war left Yemen in a high need for water, medical aid and food (Martinez, 2015). Most of the commercial ships during the blockade were blocked and only aid ships were given access into Yemen. There was an instance where an Iranian Red Crescent plane was prevented from landing by the coalition. This was done through a bomb landing on the runway of Sana’a International Airports (Borger, 2015). The bombing blocked all air deliveries of aid into Yemen. During the Yemen civil war approximately 2.5 million people were internally displaced. Foreign countries were able to evacuate approximately 23,000 of their citizens from Yemen. There were approximately 1,000,000 people who ran from Yemen to other Countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Djibouti.
The airstrikes in Yemen were reportedly violating the laws of war. After the Human Rights watch investigations (Martinez, 2015). The Human Rights Watch investigations discovered that there was not evident military target based on the airstrikes. The attacks were not able to clearly identify military and civilian objectives. This is the reason that they were in violation of the laws of war. Amnesty International investigated and reported on the impact and circumstances of the airstrikes that was led by Saud coalition forces on Sana’a (Martinez, 2015). Hajjah, Sa’da and Hodeidah. From the investigations it was believed that the coalition was targeting civilians intentionally. This airstrikes on civilians were deemed as being contrary to the rules of international humanitarian law. Amnesty International reported there being approximately 97 deaths of civilians which included 157 civilians and 33 children (Martinez, 2015). Farea Al-Muslim said that there were war crimes which were directly committed during the Yemen civil war. An example was when a Saudi airstrike hit an internally displaced person’s camp (Soliman & Styan, 2016). Houthis also prevented aid workers from working in giving aid to the needed people.
The US Representative criticized the attacks on Yemen led by the Saudi Arabians. Ted Lieu said that “some of these strikes look like war crimes to me and I want to get answers as to why the United States appears to be assisting in the execution of war crimes in Yemen” (Snyder, 2016). As Saudi spokesman declared Sa’dah which had a population of 50,000 people a military target. The Human Rights Watch said that “this not only violated the laws of war prohibition against placing civilians at a particular risk by treating a number of separate and distinct military objectives as a single military target, but possibly also the prohibition against making threats of violence whose purpose is to instill terror in the civilian population” (Soliman & Styan, 2016). The analysis of the Human Rights Watch on the airstrikes which were led by the Saudis discovered that bombs were dropped on various locations around the city including schools, hospitals and markets (Almasmari, 2011). The Yemen United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator was in agreement with the Human Rights Watch that the Saudi led operations did breach international humanitarian law. He said that “the indiscriminate bombing of populated areas with or without prior warning is in contravention of international humanitarian law. He also mentioned that ‘scores of civilians were reportedly killed and thousands were forced to flee their homes after the coalition declared the entire governate a military target” (Mazzett & Kirkpatrick, 2015).
The Yemen Save the Children Country Director mentioned that “indiscriminate attacks after the dropping of leaflets urging civilians to leave Sa’ada raises concerns about the possible pattern being established in breach of International Humanitarian Law (Martinez, 2015). Warning civilians does not exonerate the coalition from their obligation to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and we have seen in the last days that the warnings have not been enough to spare civilian lives. At the same time people are largely unable to flee for safety because of de facto blockade imposed by the coalition leading to severe fuel shortages” (Zack, 2016). The Yemen United Nations envoy came up with peace talk’s initiative in Geneva. The Houthis rebel spokesman in reply to this said that they were able to hold talks as long as it was held in a neutral country. The Secretary General of the United Nations who is known as Ban Ki moon requested that there should be a humanitarian pause as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approached (Zack, 2016). The peace talks between the rebel Houthis and exiled government came to a close without there being a ceasefire being achieved. A ceasefire was achieved between the Houthis and the Saudi led military coalition due to the efforts and successful talks achieved by the Omani dignitaries and the United States Secretary of state John Kerry (Soliman & Styan, 2016). The Yemen civil war was a very crucial war which saw two countries Yemen and Saudi Arabia go from sharing various issues to being at war with each other. Civilians were targeted mostly but a peaceful ceasefire was achieved.
References
Almasmari H. (2011). Yemeni President won’t Run Again. The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved from www.wsj.com
Borger J. (2015). "Saudi-led naval blockade leaves 20 m Yemenis facing humanitarian disaster". The Guardian.
Kadhim K. A. (2013). Governance in the Middle East and North Africa: A Handbook. Routledge. p. 302.
Kube C. (2016). "U.S. Officials: Iran Supplying Weapons to Yemen's Houthi Rebels". NBC News .
Loveluck L. (2015). "Britain 'fuelling war in Yemen' through arms sales, says charity". The Daily Telegraph.
Martinez L. (2015). "US Rescues 2 Saudi Pilots From Gulf of Aden". ABC News.
Mazzett M. & Kirkpatrick D. D. (2015). "Saudi Arabia Begins Air Assault in Yemen". The New York Times .
Soliman A. & Styan D. (2016). Connecting the Horn of Africa and the Gulf. AllAfrica.com. Retrieved from www.allafrica.com
Snyder S. (2016). "US involvement in the Yemen war just got deeper". The World. PRI.
Zack B. (2016). "Why the hell is the US helping Saudi Arabia bomb Yemen? A brief guide". Vox.
