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.
Today Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan gave a detailed overview of US policy toward Yemen at the Council on Foreign Relations. Marc Lynch over at Foreign Policy has provided the good […]
Postings at Waq al-waq will be suspended until some point in mid-July (depending on the fish and novels) at which point I will resume, what is for me, regular posting.
In Yemen, al-Qaeda often makes mistakes that open the group up to criticism. Most of the time this chance goes begging as the Yemeni government, popular clerics and tribal shaykhs […]
I wanted to highlight three different pieces on Yemen that have been published in the last couple of days, mostly because they are written by a trio of bright individuals […]
This morning Ibrahim Mothana, an incredibly smart and funny young Yemeni, has an op-ed in the New York Times on Drones, Yemen and blowback. I would encourage you all to […]
This morning Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman have a thought-provoking piece on US military involvement – yes, lets call it a war – in Yemen. At the end of their […]
Three interesting pieces on Yemen have hit the internet in the past couple of days, which people who follow Waq al-waq should definitely read. The first, and most important, is […]
Over the past few years as I’ve thought about al-Qaeda, Yemen and US policy I have returned time and time again to what I have termed “the Ghalib al-Zayadi problem.” […]
Earlier today an anonymous US official confirmed the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi. Now, I don’t have a lot to say about al-Libi – other than to say wait for […]
On December 17, 2009 the US carried out a missile strike against what it believed to be an al-Qaeda training camp in the south Yemeni governorate of Abyan. Unfortunately, what […]
Last night Frontline aired the film al-Qaeda in Yemen, which was reported by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad who writes for the Guardian and who, along with Declan Walsh when he was at […]
In perhaps this blog’s worst kept secret, I have been writing a book. In fact, I started working on the book before Brian and I even started Waq al-waq. Originally, […]
Late on Friday afternoon, AQAP posted this video “appeal” from a Saudi diplomat. The man, Abdullah al-Khalidi, is the deputy Saudi consul in Aden. He was kidnapped several weeks ago […]
Today the Friends of Yemen met in Riyadh. One of the key issues, as it often is at these meetings, is that of foreign aid. Several days ago a group […]
Few academics decided to study Yemen because of terrorism or al-Qaeda. It was Yemen's other, richer side that attracted us.
As the details of the undercover operation to infiltrate AQAP continue to be made public the picture of what happened is starting clear. As I wrote yesterday, it appears that […]
Despite all the leaks that have come out over the latest underwear bomb plot there is still a great deal we don’t know. For instance, did information from the undercover […]
For more than three years AQAP and Muhammad bin Nayif have been involved in a high-stakes intelligence duel, which has largely been fought in the shadows of Yemen’s tribal territories. […]
Yesterday afternoon the Associated Press broke a story about a bomb plot from Yemen, revealing relatively few but still tantalizing details about a plot we still know little about. (ABC […]
Last week I posted on the CIA’s request to carry out “signature strikes” in Yemen. I made quite clear my opposition to the policy, not because I’m opposed to drones […]
For the past several years I have been arguing that the US has to do a better job of framing the war against al-Qaeda in Yemen. The war should never […]
On Saturday Bruce Ackerman of Yale Law School published this op-ed in the Washington Post on the CIA’s reported request to employ signature strikes in Yemen. The legal issues that […]
At the end of 2009, Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi estimated that there were around 200 – 300 members of AQAP in Yemen. Today, John Brennan suggested that group […]
Earlier today Will McCants, Jeremy Scahill, Clint Watts and I had a twitter discussion – or whatever the word is when one is limited to 140 characters – on Yemen […]
Yesterday I teased an upcoming post about the US approach to disrupting and defeating AQAP. Shortly after that Greg Miller – a smart and well connected journalist at the Washington […]
Things have been going pretty good for AQAP of late. The group appears to be gaining recruits both from inside Yemen and abroad and it is taking and holding more […]
The closest thing the US has to a “Yemen Czar” is John Brennan, President Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser, and so when he speaks on Yemen – as he did […]
Earlier today I answered five questions for PBS’ NewsHour on the elections in Yemen and what it means going forward. Since I covered a lot of ground in the Q-and-A […]
Several months ago, I wrote a brief post about Yemen’s then acting president Abd Rabu Mansur Hadi. Tomorrow, as you all know, he is set to remove the “acting” from […]
Tomorrow, February 21, will mark the last day of President Ali Abdullah Salih’s nearly 34 years in power, at least officially. In his place, Yemenis will head to the polls […]