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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.
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Today is just one of those days when, try as I might, I just can’t keep my mind on the work I’m supposed to be doing and am instead sucked […]
Here at Waq al-waq we rarely take a stand on issues (unless it is how to transliterate Arabic words) or endorse different things, but from time to time we break […]
Today’s papers are, as you can imagine, full of stories about Muhammad al-‘Awfi and how and when he turned himself in or was captured.CNN has this story on al-‘Awfi that […]
The big news coming out of Yemen today is that roughly 40 prisoners – southern activists – escaped from a jail in al-Dhala after a guard threw a hand grenade […]
For those with an interest in hearing me talk as opposed to just reading the blog, I will be on the Takeaway at the very early hour of 7:30 am […]
Not surprisingly there is a lot of attention being paid to Inspire, much more than is paid to the Arabic releases by the al-Malahim media wing. I can only say […]
Al-Jazeera, as regular readers of Waq al-waq are well aware, is not endearing itself to Yemeni authorities as of late – but then really few newspapers or media outlets are, […]
This may have come, oh I don’t know, about 15 years too late.
There are more arrests in Yemen. First, another one in Taizz, of someone that 26th of September is identifying as Abu Hadhifah, which tells us exactly nothing. Mareb Press has […]
President Salih announced at a meeting of Yemeni journalists that the government was dropping charges against ‘Abd al-Karim al-Khaywani. Not everyone it seems is happy with the delay in Parliamentary […]
Today I have an op-ed in the New York Times, arguing that killing Anwar al-Awlaki will likely do little to protect the US homeland from AQAP attacks and that instead […]
Today marks Waq al-waq’s last day on blogspot.com. After some thought and several discussions I have decided to move Waq al-waq to Big Think. I am incredibly excited about the […]
A little less than a year ago Brian and I started this blog. What for me began as an amusing diversion has, nearly 12 months later, become an unhealthy distraction. […]
On a visit to the 29th Mechanized Division, President Salih has said that the military would changed tactics to deal with the Huthis, recalling Yemen’s experience in wars in the […]
I had meant to post on this fascinating new report from the Middle East Institue on Friday when it showed up in my in-box, but events over the weekend prevented […]
This report in the New York Times details the latest drone attack in Pakistan, which killed at least 25 people Saturday.Yemen has long been compared unflatteringly to both Afghanistan and […]
There isn’t much in the pan-Arab papers today with the exception of a small UPI piece in al-Quds al-Arabi denying that the 176 released prisoners have any link to al-Qaeda. […]
For those who missed it or who can’t get enough of me spouting off here is a link to a radio segment I did this morning with Robert Worth of […]
This is an excellent article by Mohammed al Qadhi in today’s National on the water problem in Ta’izz, which is even worse there than it is in San’a. In other […]
For those new to Waq al-waq – and that is most of you – you should be aware that we will delete any comment that uses profanity, as I did […]