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Since the beginning of 2009, there have been signs that the long-awaited overspill of jihadist violence from Yemen into Saudi Arabia has gathered pace, leading up to last month’s Saudi offensive against militant targets in the Yemeni borderlands.

When a 'terror plot' emerges everyone is quick to rush in with their interpretation of the (usually shadowy) events. "An armed cell related to a regional government" was reportedly uncovered over the summer in the northern emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah (RAK). Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida,

Among the most vocal princes in articulating Saudi anti-terrorism policy has been prominent businessman Prince Mohammed Al-Faisal. In a 2 September interview with The Washington Times -

The past eight months have been unusually busy for counter-terrorism in Saudi Arabia, which has been on a raised level of alert since the increase in terrorist attacks in Yemen in Q1 08.

The Kingdom is on high alert after the audacious assassination attempt during Ramadan – the first recorded Al-Qaeda attack on a Saudi royal in recent times – and the security focus is on the border with Yemen

Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) navies are rapidly building up powerful fleets of muscular corvettes and multi-role offshore patrol vessels, making it likely that nations such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman will soon boast the most advanced surface combatants in the region.

The emirate represents the second most threatened in the GCC after Saudi Arabia, and Kuwaitis are significantly represented among Al-Qaeda’s leadership

The Al-Houthis' threat to a united Yemeni state is less well articulated than the Southern Movement's challenge to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but it remains a major thorn in Sanaa's flesh. In spite of Qatari and domestic

Dealing with a growing number of returned prisoners from Guantanamo Bay is burdening an already complex process of putting terror suspects on trial, testing relationships between states and exacerbating sectarian rifts

Like Yemen, the militant threat in Bahrain is intimately linked to Saudi Arabia. This was underlined by recent attempts to secure the extradition of three Bahrainis being held in Saudi Arabia on terrorism charges. Bahrain’s Al-Adala group (National Justice Movement) and National Detainees Committee are demanding the release of the men. The first is Guantanamo detainee Abdullah Majid Al-Naimi, who was detained by Saudi police at the King Fahd causeway on 10 October; he is one of six Bahrainis detained at Guantanamo, a surprisingly high number given Bahrain’s tiny population.

In a partial success for German and French diplomacy, this €2bn electronic security contract award is primarily a technological security decision for a project long coveted by Paris.

Widening their scope of operations, Somali pirates are posing an ever greater challenge to regional governments. While energy producers are rethinking their export strategies, governments are concerned that the Horn of Africa’s instability will encroach on the Gulf region’s southern flank. Yemen is especially vulnerable as the collapse of export revenues piles further pressure on President Saleh. GSN analyses developments in the Gulf of Aden, Somalia and Yemen, and talks exclusively to the Southern Movement’s new figurehead Ali Salem Al-Baydh.

The Maliki government faces a daunting task in the last year of its present mandate: not only must it maintain security improvements while its own forces replace departing Coalition troops, it must also create an economic renaissance in the teeth of a harsh fiscal squeeze.

Eleven alleged Al-Qaeda fighters arrested just north of the Yemeni border in early April were experienced jihadists who carried with them the components for a staggering 35 suicide vests. This raises the alarming prospect that jihadist activity may be poised to burst out again, with this group emerging as the tip of the iceberg as Saudi security forces set to work investigating their ties in the search for a suspected network of safe houses and arms caches.

The 15 March suicide bombing of Korean tourists in Yemen and the 18 March follow-up attack on a foreign convoy in Sana’a have underlined the danger of trying to draw a line under Yemen’s terrorist threat.