As in many other Arab countries, the 2011 uprising and the following counter-revolution destabilized Yemen’s political order. Political change demands ended up in a complex civil, regional, and international war. However, what is peculiar in Yemen’s case is that the modern state established between 1970 and 2010 has come into a state of collapse and disintegration. Following the 2011 uprising and the 2014 war, the army split into fractions, the economy collapsed, state intuitions split up, and civic services institutions became dysfunctional. It is safe to say that the modern state established in the 1960s came to complete demise. It all began when waves of Yemeni tribespeople, led by Saleh-Al-Houthi’s alliance, invaded the capital on September 21, 2014. Since that moment, events accelerated to a tragic point. In 2017, the tribes that were formerly aligned with the former president, Saleh, demonstrated apathy towards his predicament as he was being besieged and subsequently assassinated by his erstwhile associate, Al-Houthi. The aforementioned events elicit a critical inquiry into the intricate and enduring interplay between the modern state and the tribes. The present study seeks to unpack the complex nature of this relationship to elucidate the role of the Yemeni tribes in both the collapse of the modern state and the ongoing war in Yemen. The principal hypothesis put forth in this paper posits that the collapse of the Yemeni state can be attributed to the inherent tension between the foreign, European-inspired modes of political organization embodied by modern statehood and the local, indigenous modes of political organization that characterize the Yemeni tribes. This study will delve into primary sociological, anthropological, and historical literature on Yemen to analyze the extensive relationship between tribes and the modern state, dating back to the establishment of the modern state in North and South Yemen in the 1960s. The significance of this research lies in the crucial role that tribes continue to play as political entities in shaping the Yemeni political landscape. Despite the tribe’s pivotal presence in this scene, it is often disregarded in academic and political circles, and is notably absent from discussions regarding any potential resolution to the conflict. This paper aims to demonstrate that any viable peace in Yemen must consider the tribe’s future role in political organization.