Gregory Johnsen
Near East Studies Scholar, Princeton University
Gregory Johnsen, a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Johnsen has written for a variety of publications on Yemen including, among others, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, The Independent, The Boston Globe, and The National. He is the co-founder of Waq al-Waq: Islam and Insurgency in Yemen Blog. In 2009, he was a member of the USAID's conflict assessment team for Yemen.
I have been at a conference all day and haven’t had much time to enjoy the weather. But I did have time to read this interview with President Salih. My […]
As promised, I have included Abdulahi’s blog on Waq al-waq’s blogs we read. Sorry for the delay, but I spent a good part of yesterday avoiding work and watching my […]
For those with any interest, I will be on al-Jazeera English this evening – sometime around 8 pm EST – discussing US-Yemeni relations.Update: It turns out I had the time […]
I woke up this morning to a program about Sudanese musicians on al-Jazeera with a breaking news banner saying there had been an explosion near the British Embassy in San’a. […]
For those of you with a subscription to Jane’s Intelligence Digest, be sure to check out Brian’s analysis of the election delays in Yemen. For those of you without a […]
If only al-Shabab read Waq al-waq they would have realized that it would be a huge mistake to mess with qat. The 26th of September, an authoritative source on security […]
One of the dangers of having access to a blog is the temptation to post instant analysis on anything and everything that happens, which can be quite dangerous and often […]
The forums are just starting to discuss the potential agreement to send Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo to Saudi, and while there isn’t much to report – besides one very humorous […]
Well this is probably more of an insight into my social life than most would like, but the new issue of Sada al-Malahim (The Echo of Battles not the Glorious […]
Bill Roggio of Long War Journal, whose reporting on Yemen I am beginning to question more and more, is following the Yemen Observer in reporting that the deputy commander of […]
Ayman al-Zawahiri released a new audio tape yesterday, which focused on four different subjects. The second of these was on Yemen. His message was not that different form al-Wahayshi’s last […]
The National warns that it is midnight in Yemen with this editorial.Laura Kasinof has this piece in the Christian Science Monitor, in which I weigh-in with my thoughts on the […]
In our tireless attempts at self-promotion, here is my latest appearance on Danish radio. I think this actually works as opposed to the last time.
It has been a long day for Yemen watchers, but before I sign off for the evening I wanted to post the important paragraph from a statement from Yemen’s embassy […]
Both al-Tagheer and News Yemen are reporting that Yemeni security forces have arrested a young al-Qaeda suspect in Marib.Al-Tagheer gives us his initials, age (25) and place of residence (al-Qatn, […]
On any given day I miss a number of things about not being in Yemen – qat and friends are high on the list (not necessarily in that order) – […]
Long days of writing and scrambling to meet deadlines often leave little time or energy for writing’s lesser cousin, blogging. And today is no different. Normally, I would prefer to […]
We’ve managed to avoid a number of stories coming out of Yemen over the weekend, including the increasing rhetoric between the government and the Huthis – never a good sign. […]
For all Waq al-waq readers please turn to C-Span’s Washington Journal, my favorite show, to see Richard Fontaine talking about Yemen and al-Qaeda.
I’ll be traveling for the next three days, and postings will be fairly light. Although we will try to bring the wit and charm you have come to expect from […]
My postings will be greatly reduced over the next few weeks as I work on a couple of projects that will leave little time for blogging. However, I have been […]
Kelly McEvers of NPR has a piece on al–Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and Yemen on Morning Edition this morning. It features both Thomas Hegghammerand myself talking about Saudi and Yemen […]
There is a new AQAP audio tape, with an accompanying transcript, that has been posted to jihadi forums. I’m downloading it at the moment. This tape was teased in the […]
Oh, and for those that missed it, everyone’s favorite shaykh, ‘Abd al-Majid al-Zindani gave a wide-ranging interview to al-Wasat, which was republished by Mareb Press. Good news by the way, […]
I was listening to this discussion on WorldFocus between Christopher Boucek and Sudarsan Raghavan and one thing that the latter said stood out to me, and that is that he […]
The outside pressure so many were hesitant to put on the Yemeni government finally seems to have taken a toll. The government announced last night a conditional ceasefire. (The official […]
Most of you should remember Muhammad al-‘Awfi’s – the former Guantanamo detainee and one time military commander of AQAP – confessions back in March of this year when he alleged […]
I have little confidence in Mareb Press‘ sourcing for reports of the arrest of ‘Abd al-Malik al-Huthi. There seems to be much smoke and little fire.
Today’s big news from Yemen, as usual, happened in Arabic. Ḥasan Muḥammad Manā’, who is quickly becoming my favorite governor to read, has an interview in today’s al-Sharq al-Awsat. How […]
For those who read the recent interview with al-Wahayshi, I would recommend you take a look at Abdulela Sha’a’s blog– it adds a bit more detail. It seems as though […]