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 came close to making it through the weekend without blogging, but the new statement from AQAP forced my hand.The statement denies that anyone was killed in the strike on […]
If anyone has some free time and can make it this sounds like an interesting, if predictable, lecture.
President Salih is out of the country today, but while he is gone the JMP is publicly questioning his speech from Saturday, suggesting that there are more secessionists in San’a […]
Back in October news reports surfaced that Fahd al-Quso had been killed in Pakistan. I had my doubts then and said so here and here. Today, we have photographic evidence […]
Three new articles on Yemen (in English) that you should read.1. Bernard Haykel in the National2. Fawaz Gerges for CNN3. Michael Knights for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Three people whose work I respect: Brian, Aaron and Clint have all come down – with some variations – on the side of using drones in Yemen to target and […]
Despite my nerd-like fantasies – Washington Journal is my favorite show – C-Span didn’t show up to cover the event at Carnegie on Tuesday, but al-Hurra did and their correspondent […]
Two deaths today during a funeral procession in Lahj for demonstrators that were killed last week. Al-Sahawa has the names of the deceased and some rather gruesome pictures. The bad […]
Instead of reading Salih’s interview with al-Hayat and the denial that was e-mailed to me early this morning by Yahya al-Huthi, I have spent the day (well not the whole […]
Waq al-waq has had well over 3,000 visitors today, which is far above our daily average. For those new to blog and looking for information on Yemen and al-Qaeda in […]
Two new articles – in English – today give me an excuse to write on the Huthi conflict and also discuss some new media outlets that are publicizing their side […]
Apologies for the extended absence from blogging. It couldn’t be helped. A lot has happened in the last two weeks, some of which I’ll even be blogging about in the […]
I was going to entitle this post “Waq al-waq hearts Robert F. Worth,” but decided that might be a bit much. As it is, Worth’s post has warmed the collective […]
Just a quick note from Firestone’s dungeon, to recommend that anyone interested in what is going on in the south should read Nasser Arrabyee’s report in al-Ahram weekly.For me, the […]
After weeks of speculation and false leads Yemen has identified the suicide bomber that attempted to attack a South Korean convoy in March. The attacker was 20-year-old Khalid Abdullah Ali […]
So here I am sitting at home on Spring Break, writing up a report on Yemen, and just as I come to the section on press freedoms in the country […]
Waq al-waq’s spring cleaning goes on, as we continue to ignore stories in nearly every sector. But I think it is time for a quick round-up.First is this story about […]
Mareb Press is reporting that a mediation team under the leadership of Shaykh Faris al-Mana’a arrived in Ghamir in Sa’dah in an attempt to bring the situation back under control […]
I have been traveling to DC the last couple of days – and on the train most of the morning – which means I’m playing a bit of catch-up with […]
There is a great deal of news coming out of Yemen and Saudi Arabia this morning. Khalid al-Hammadi, in al-Quds al-Arabi, as well as a number of others write about […]
I will be traveling for the rest of the week, consequently postings will be sporadic. I will, however, do my best to post from the road and the hotel. But […]
It seems clear from everything I have been able to put together from news reports, Yemeni officials I’ve spoken with and Yemenis back in Yemen that the 6 hostages are […]
There is not much in the way of analysis in this piece by Mareb Press, but I do completely disagree with the headline. I think al-Wahayshi’s statement was, in fact, […]
The head of the criminal investigation unit in Marib was kidnapped yesterday, and is reportedly being held in exchange for the release of tribal prisoners.Al-Sharq al-Awsat is reporting on the […]
Well, having spent more time than even I like talking about Yemen today (for those keeping score at home apparently the limit sans qat is eight hours – nine hours […]
There have been numerous reports on Yemen in English that have been released in recent days – some good and some not so good – but few on which I […]
I have a new article out in Newsweek that argues that any benefits from assassinating al-Awlaki should be weighed carefully against not only the questionable legality of such a strike […]
One of the things about thinking so much about one particular country is that everything tends to be processed through that one filter. This can be both good and bad. […]
Al-Tagheer republishes this piece by Faysal Mukrim of al-Hayat, which happens to be strangely similar to the piece written by Muhammad al-Ahmadi in al-Ghad, which is edited by Mukrim. Mareb […]
Yemen has announced that it has arrested 6 of the 12 potential suicide bombers that were on the loose. There is little information about when, where or how. Such is […]