Abstract. – The tribal society of Munebbih in the extreme northwest of Yemen lives at the periphery of southwestern Arabia’s regional power centres. The Munebbih tribal society is able to maintain its relative autonomy because it distinguishes between political and military leadership. This division of power facilitates a strategic balance and a limitation of conflicts in which the Munebbih are continuously involved. The progressive involvement of Munebbih in the so-called Huthi conflict, which erupted in 2004 in the northern provinces of Yemen, confronted this tribal model of leadership roles with a new type of conflict and posed an enormous challenge to it, which also exposed its weaknesses and strengths. [Yemen, Munebbih/Munabbih, Khawlan/Hawlan,tribe, tribalism, Huthi conflict, civil war]