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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.


Brilliance in the morning: The New York Times had an absolutely wonderful op-ed today (some of you may have noticed that I have been strongly disagreeing with Victoria Clark’s piece […]
There has been much talk about facebook and twitter revolutions in the Middle East, but given the internet’s rather low infiltration rate in Yemen – I think roughly 200,000 lines* […]
In much the same way Hosni Mubarak (former president of Egypt) constantly and consistently made the argument that he was the only thing standing between Egypt and a radical Islamic […]
Yesterday we talked about the kidnapping of Tawakul Karman (the government has wisely decided to release her today), but I didn’t mention the kidnapping of Taha Husayn Ali Muhsin (Ar.), […]
Two days after Tawakul Karman was profiled by Isobel Coleman in a piece for the Huffington Post, suspected Yemeni security officials, driving in three pick-ups, swooped in and arrested her […]
Many apologies for the delay in postings, other work has gotten in the way, but I promise to be better in the future.  It has been an incredibly busy few […]
I almost never understand the media.  For instance, at a time when the US is engaged in an excruciating and incredibly long war and is involved in military action in […]
In what can only be described as awkward timing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Yemen only a couple of weeks after amendments went to parliament that would allow President […]
Hours after AQAP pulled off one ambush in Abyan, they were back at it, ambushing another convoy of soldiers this afternoon. This time they attacked a convoy (Ar) that included […]
At 10 am this morning, a group of al-Qaeda fighters shouting Allahu Akbar ambushed a convoy of military vehicles from the Central Security Forces, killing anywhere from 6 to 12 […]
Oh, those Pakistanis.  First, they claim that a drone strike killed Fahd al-Qusa and then months later al-Qusa appears safe and sound on the front page of al-Sharq al-Awsat, where […]