Podcast appearances and mentions of gregory johnsen

From January 16, 2024: Over the last two months, Houthi militants have waged more than 27 attacks against merchant shipping and U.S. and partner forces in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, purportedly in response to the war in Gaza. These attacks have significantly disrupted global shipping and surged the Middle East into an even more precarious security situation. Following a large-scale Houthi attack on U.S. and British ships, the U.S. and U.K. on Jan. 11 launched over 150 munitions targeting almost 30 Houthi sites in Yemen. The U.S. on Jan. 12 carried out another strike on a Houthi radar facility. The Houthis have since retaliated with multiple strikes targeting U.S. forces. Yesterday, the Houthis for the first time successfully struck a cargo ship owned and operated by the United States.Lawfare Research Fellow Matt Gluck sat down with Gregory Johnsen, the Associate Director of the Institute for Future Conflict at the U.S. Air Force Academy and Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson to discuss the spate of Houthi attacks, the U.S. response and the associated domestic and international law questions, and where the fighting is likely to go from here. What can history tell us about the possible paths forward? Why did the U.S. act when it did? What's in it for the Houthis? They chewed over these questions and more. To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For today's episode, Lawfare Foreign Policy Editor Daniel Byman interviewed Gregory Johnsen, a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, D.C. Johnsen explains the rationale of the Trump administration's decision to bomb Yemen but argues that it will have little effect on the Houthis. Indeed, Johnsen contends that the Houthis are spoiling for a fight with the United States and Israel, believing that this will generate support within Yemen that will help them increase their power.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the last two months, Houthi militants have waged more than 27 attacks against merchant shipping and U.S. and partner forces in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, purportedly in response to the war in Gaza. These attacks have significantly disrupted global shipping and surged the Middle East into an even more precarious security situation. Following a large-scale Houthi attack on U.S. and British ships, the U.S. and U.K. on Jan. 11 launched over 150 munitions targeting almost 30 Houthi sites in Yemen. The U.S. on Jan. 12 carried out another strike on a Houthi radar facility. The Houthis have since retaliated with multiple strikes targeting U.S. forces. Yesterday, the Houthis for the first time successfully struck a cargo ship owned and operated by the United States.Lawfare Research Fellow Matt Gluck sat down with Gregory Johnsen, the Associate Director of the Institute for Future Conflict at the U.S. Air Force Academy and Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson to discuss the spate of Houthi attacks, the U.S. response and the associated domestic and international law questions, and where the fighting is likely to go from here. What can history tell us about the possible paths forward? Why did the U.S. act when it did? What's in it for the Houthis? They chewed over these questions and more. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From September 26, 2015: On this week's Lawfare Podcast, Gregory Johnsen outlines the current state-of-play in Yemen. Johnsen, who is a writer-at-large for Buzzfeed News, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, and an all-things-Yemen-expert, walks Ben through the byzantine power politics in Sanaa that led to the conflict now engulfing Yemen and he explains why the war shouldn't be viewed as just another Sunni-Shia fight. Yet while he clarifies that the issues that sparked the war are much more local, he warns that the longer the conflict goes on, the more likely it is to expand. Johnsen also outlines the events that led to the Saudi intervention and whether or not Yemen—which he says is really twelve separate factions now—can ever be put back together again.Johnsen is the author of The Last Refuge: Yemen, al Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia. Follow him on Twitter for the latest updates on Yemen.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From December 11, 2018: Last week, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Gregory Johnsen, a former member of the U.N. Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen and the author of the book "The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia," to do a deep dive on the conflict in Yemen: its origins; its current state; and the role Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States have played and are likely to play moving forward. Joining Ben and Greg was Daniel Byman, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Middle East Policy and Lawfare's own Foreign Policy Editor.After Ben and Dan's conversation with Greg, Brookings Fellow Molly Reynolds and Lawfare's Scott R. Anderson sat down for a conversation about Yemen-related legislation that is currently churning on Capitol Hill, and what it may mean for the future of U.S. involvement in the conflict there.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From September 17, 2019: Tensions in the Middle East are at a high point. Over the weekend, large Saudi oil facilities were attacked. The Yemeni Houthis jumped in to claim responsibility. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran. President Trump tweets that the U.S. is 'locked and loaded' and ready for potential response. But what has actually happened in the Arabian Peninsula? What does the future hold for conflict between the Saudis and the Iranians? And what role will the United States have?To talk it all through, Benjamin Wittes spoke with Gregory Johnsen, a researcher on Yemen and Middle East conflict; Suzanne Maloney, a Brookings senior fellow whose research centers on Iran; Samantha Gross, a fellow in the Cross-Brookings Initiative on Energy and Climate; and Scott R. Anderson, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and senior editor at Lawfare. They talked about what we know about what happened over the weekend, the geopolitical context for the attack, potential American responses, and the legal authorities that could justify American military action.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week welcomes Gregory Johnsen to the podcast. We discuss the intricacies of the ongoing Saudi Arabia-Yemen conflict, the U.S. Government element, Gregory's research, the civilian casualties, the lack of news coverage, and pondering about what should happen and what may happen next. All this and more!Thanks, Gregory!

It has now been 20 years since September 11th, 2001. So we're bringing you a Peabody Award-winning story from our archives about one sentence, written in the hours after the attacks, that has led to the longest war in U.S. history. We examine how just 60 words of legal language have blurred the line between war and peace. In the hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a lawyer sat down in front of a computer and started writing a legal justification for taking action against those responsible. The language that he drafted and that President George W. Bush signed into law - called the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) -  has at its heart one single sentence, 60 words long. Over the last decade, those 60 words have become the legal foundation for the "war on terror." In this collaboration with BuzzFeed, reporter Gregory Johnsen tells us the story of how this has come to be one of the most important, confusing, troubling sentences of the last two decades. We go into the meetings that took place in the chaotic days just after 9/11, speak with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Congressman Ron Dellums about the vote on the AUMF. We hear from former White House and State Department lawyers John Bellinger & Harold Koh. We learn how this legal language unleashed Guantanamo, Navy Seal raids and drone strikes. And we speak with journalist Daniel Klaidman, legal expert Benjamin Wittes and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine about how these words came to be interpreted, and what they mean for the future of war and peace. Finally, we check back in with Congresswoman Lee, and talk to Yale law professor and national security expert Oona Hathaway, about how to move on from the original sixty words. Original episode produced by Matt Kielty and Kelsey Padgett with original music by Dylan Keefe. Update reported and produced by Sarah Qari and Soren Wheeler. Special thanks to Brian Finucane. Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate. 

Most people have either never heard of Yemen or know very little about it. The country is one of the world's poorest, is home to Islamist terrorist groups and is beset by a war with the involvement of foreign actors. Borealis is joined by Yemen specialist Gregory Johnsen to get a better understanding of how we got there and what the stakes are.►Find out more about my guest Gregorry Johnsen►Subscribe - https://borealisthreatandrisk.com/subscribe/About my guest Gregory JohnsenGregory D. Johnsen, a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen, is a PhD candidate at Princeton University and the Michael Hastings National Security Fellow at BuzzFeed. A frequent guest on NPR, he has contributed essays to the New York Times. He lives in Ithaca, New York. Find out more about my guest.About the host Phil Gurski:Phil is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. and Programme Director for the Security, Economics and Technology (SET) hub at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute (PDI). He worked as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) from 2001-2015, specializing in violent Islamist-inspired homegrown terrorism and radicalisation.►Check Phil's latest book ''When Religion Kills'' - https://amzn.to/2ALdpoG►Website - https://borealisthreatandrisk.com/►Twitter - https://twitter.com/borealissaves►LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-gurski-8942468/►Email - borealisrisk@gmail.com

Aid organizations that rely on donations by Americans to fund their work in war-ravaged Yemen are on edge.Media reports have suggested that the Trump administration, in its waning days, may designate Yemen’s governing Ansar Allah movement — also called the Houthis — as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).The Houthis, whose name derives from the founder’s family, overthrew Yemen’s democratically elected government in 2015. Since then, the Houthis have imprisoned and tortured opponents of their regime, and they continue to lay siege to areas not under their control.But they also act as a national government, ruling over the populous northern region of Yemen, including the capital, Sana’a.Related: In Yemen, war is 'trumping peace'If the United States labels the Houthis as an FTO, many aid activities in Yemen will stop.“Designation would make it generally illegal for anyone to transact with Ansar Allah armed group [the Houthis] or the government they control in Sana'a,” said Scott Paul, humanitarian policy lead for Oxfam America. “And depending on how it's designated, it might also prohibit the provision of any form of support, anything as small as a slice of pizza at a training.”The war in Yemen has killed 100,000 people, left Yemen’s economy in shambles and forced most of Yemen’s 30 million people to survive on food, fuel and cash payments provided by foreign aid organizations that work in Yemen with the consent of the Houthi government.‘Strengthening public and social services’The US aims to increase pressure on the Houthis — who receive support from Iran — to negotiate a settlement with the opposing Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia. A US State Department spokesperson told The World, “Our focus is on supporting a comprehensive political agreement that will end the conflict and resolve the dire humanitarian situation.”The Houthis would join al-Qaeda, al-Shabab and ISIS on the list of groups designated by the US as foreign terrorist organizations. And while the Houthis share some of these militant groups’ more brutal characteristics, their members also help manage essential public services,  including health, sanitation, water, telecommunications and banking for tens of millions of Yemenis.“We can't simply go without interacting with the government in a place like Yemen,” said Paul. “Much of what we do is focused on strengthening public and social services.” He added, “Groups could be subject to fines or even criminal penalties for doing the work that they've been doing for the last five and a half years in this humanitarian response.”Aisha Jumaan, a Yemeni American, runs a US-based charity that works in some of Yemen’s most inaccessible places. “We're not going to be able to send funds to Yemen anymore for any of our operations,” said Jumaan. Her charity, Yemen Relief and Reconstruction, distributes food baskets to thousands of families in need.“And these people, we’re their last chance," she added. "These people have nothing to eat. These people will know that the rest of the world, led by the US, says you don't matter.”‘Need to change their behavior’The US State Department does not publicly discuss deliberations regarding potential designations. But a department spokesperson, responding to The World, wrote, “We do believe strongly that the Houthis need to change their behavior and stop exacerbating Yemen’s humanitarian crisis; stop arbitrarily detaining people; stop attacking civilian populations, ​infrastructure, and shipping; and stop working with the IRGC [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], a designated foreign terrorist organization.”Some Yemenis support the idea of designating the Houthis as terrorists. "There was a protest last week,” Afrah Nasser, a Yemeni researcher who works with Human Rights Watch, said of a demonstration in the besieged central Yemeni city of Taiz.Thousands Of Yemenis in #Taiz city today in a protest demand @UN , @SecPompeo and @UNGeneva listing #Houthi militia as a #terrorist group .#terrorism #Yemen pic.twitter.com/0eDp5ahoVO— Mohammed Al-Rumim (@mohammedalrumim) November 27, 2020“People were holding banners that said, ‘With one voice, we demand the designation of the Houthi armed group as a terrorist group,’” she added. “I understand the unspeakable suffering of civilians in Taiz who have faced indiscriminate shelling and attacks. But the designation in and of itself will not provide justice for victims in Taiz, or any place in Yemen.”While a designation may not bring justice to Yemeni victims of the Houthis, some observers believe it could pressure the Houthis into negotiating with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.“This is what the Trump administration and people such as Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo have been arguing,” notes Gregory Johnsen of the Brookings Institution. “They’re saying that the international community does not have a great deal of leverage over the Houthis, and designating them as a foreign terrorist organization would give us a stick to compel them to make a deal with the Saudi-led coalition.”  Johnsen, who served on the UN panel of experts which oversees a sanctions program in Yemen, does not believe that a terrorist designation would have the intended effect.“Designating them as a foreign terrorist organization and essentially criminalizing activity, which would cut off humanitarian aid into Houthi-controlled areas, it's not going to do much good.”The State Department has not yet made the designation.“From everything that I'm seeing from people that I've been speaking with in Washington, it appears as though the Trump administration really wants to make this happen.”Gregory Johnsen, Brookings Institution“From everything that I'm seeing from people that I've been speaking with in Washington, it appears as though the Trump administration really wants to make this happen,” Johnsen told The World.“I know that internally there has been significant resistance from a number of different departments, whether that's in the Department of Defense or the State Department,” he added.“It's unclear whether the Trump administration will be able to override those professional concerns and make this designation on their way out the door,” Johnsen said, predicting that a decision could come in the next couple of weeks.Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the humanitarian policy lead for Oxfam America. His name is Scott Paul.

This hour we pull apart one sentence, written in the hours after September 11th, 2001, that has led to the longest war in U.S. history. We examine how just 60 words of legal language have blurred the line between war and peace. Last weekend President Trump authorized a strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq. The news had us thinking about an episode we produced in 2014. We pulled apart one sentence, written in the hours after September 11th, 2001, that has led to the longest war in U.S. history. We examine how just 60 words of legal language have blurred the line between war and peace. In the hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a lawyer sat down in front of a computer and started writing a legal justification for taking action against those responsible. The language that he drafted and that President George W. Bush signed into law - called the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) -  has at its heart one single sentence, 60 words long. Over the last decade, those 60 words have become the legal foundation for the "war on terror." In this collaboration with BuzzFeed, reporter Gregory Johnsen tells us the story of how this has come to be one of the most important, confusing, troubling sentences of the last two decades. We go into the meetings that took place in the chaotic days just after 9/11, speak with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Congressman Ron Dellums about the vote on the AUMF. We hear from former White House and State Department lawyers John Bellinger & Harold Koh. We learn how this legal language unleashed Guantanamo, Navy Seal raids and drone strikes. And we speak with journalist Daniel Klaidman, legal expert Benjamin Wittes and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine about how these words came to be interpreted, and what they mean for the future of war and peace. Finally, we check back in with Wittes, to see how the AUMF has trickled into the 2020s. Produced by Matt Kielty and Kelsey Padgett with original music by Dylan Keefe.  Watch Congresswomen Barbara Lee's speech here. 

Tensions in the Middle East are at a high point. Over the weekend, large Saudi oil facilities were attacked. The Yemeni Houthis jumped in to claim responsibility. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran. President Trump tweets that the U.S. is 'locked and loaded' and ready for potential response. But what has actually happened in the Arabian Peninsula? What does the future hold for conflict between the Saudis and the Iranians? And what role will the United States have? To talk it all through, Benjamin Wittes spoke with Gregory Johnsen, a researcher on Yemen and Middle East conflict; Suzanne Maloney, a Brookings senior fellow whose research centers on Iran; Samantha Gross, a fellow in the Cross-Brookings Initiative on Energy and Climate; and Scott R. Anderson, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and senior editor at Lawfare. They talked about what we know about what happened over the weekend, the geopolitical context for the attack, potential American responses, and the legal authorities that could justify American military action.

The war in Yemen has created one of the greatest unseen humanitarian tragedies in the world. It finally drew public attention after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which triggered a debate about US involvement in the war. As peace talks begin in Sweden, Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen joins this week's Deep Dish podcast. 

Last week, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Gregory Johnsen, a former member of the U.N. Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen and the author of the book "The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia," to do a deep dive on the conflict in Yemen: its origins; its current state; and the role Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States have played and are likely to play moving forward. Joining Ben and Greg was Daniel Byman, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy and Lawfare’s own Foreign Policy Editor. After Ben and Dan’s conversation with Greg, Brookings Fellow Molly Reynolds and Lawfare's Scott R. Anderson sat down for a conversation about Yemen-related legislation that is currently churning on Capitol Hill, and what it may mean for the future of U.S. involvement in the conflict there.

The Saudi-led coalition has led a brutal air campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015. The result has been a tremendous humanitarian catastrophe, with 50,000 dead, millions on the brink of starvation, and a deadly outbreak of cholera in 2016. The dire situation has also been exacerbated by the continuation and intensification of two overlapping wars—the U.S. war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State, and an intractable, multi-sided civil war. While the United States has demonstrated some desire to distance itself from the Yemen war, the Saudi-led coalition has intensified its battle over the port city of Hodeidah. Gregory Johnsen discusses the multiple overlapping conflicts in Yemen and the options for the United States to reduce the negative humanitarian and strategic consequences of the conflict there. Gregory Johnsen is a Yemen expert who served on the Yemen Panel of Experts for the UN Security Council from 2016 to 2018. He was a Fulbright fellow in Yemen and resident scholar at the Arabia Foundation, and holds a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. Johnsen is also the author of The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia. Participants Gregory Johnsen, author and Yemen scholar Michael Wahid Hanna, The Century Foundation Thanassis Cambanis, The Century Foundation

On this week’s Lawfare Podcast, Gregory Johnsen outlines the state-of-play currently in Yemen. Johnsen, who is a writer-at-large for Buzzfeed News, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, and an all-things-Yemen-expert, walks Ben through the byzantine power politics in Sanaa that led to the conflict now engulfing Yemen and he explains why the war shouldn’t be viewed as just another Sunni-Shia fight. Yet while he clarifies that the issues that sparked the war are much more local, he warns that the longer the conflict goes on, the more likely it is to expand. Johnsen also outlines the events that led to the Saudi intervention and just whether or not Yemen, which he says is really twelve separate countries now, can ever be put back together again.   Johnsen is the author of The Last Refuge: Yemen, al Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia. Follow him on Twitter for the latest updates on Yemen.  

Our guest this week is Gregory Johnsen, author of "The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia". Johnsen went to Jordan with the Peace Corps and first went to Yemen on a Fulbright Fellowship. In addition to his book, he has also written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and others. He holds a BA in History, an MA in Near Eastern studies from the University of Arizona and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern studies at Princeton University. He was the 2013 - 2014 Michael Hastings National Security Reporting Fellow at Buzzfeed. We talk to Gregory about writing books, learning languages and how to get to know complicated places. Show notes are available at sourcesandmethods.com

"Crisis Yemen: Going Where?" Featuring: Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Mr. Gregory Johnsen, Dr. Charles Schmitz, Mr. Robert Sharp, and Dr. John Duke Anthony. Recorded June 26, 2012 in Washington, DC. Visit www.ncusar.org for more information.

Yemen Headlined: Contemporary Myths and Empirical Realities - Participating panelists include: > Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Director, Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative, Princeton University, and former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen > Dr. Christopher Boucek, Associate in the Middle East Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace > Mr. Gregory Johnsen, Ph.D. Candidate, Princeton University; Co-Founder, Waq al-Waq: Islam and Insurgency in Yemen Blog; and former Fulbright and American Institute for Yemen Studies Fellow in Yemen > Ambassador James A. Larocco, Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, U.S. Department of Defense, and former U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait > Dr. Mustafa Alani, Senior Advisor and Research Program Director, Gulf Research Center, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Moderator: > Dr. John Duke Anthony, Founding President and CEO, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations; former Fulbright Fellow in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen; and one of two Americans to have served as an official observer for all four of Yemen's presidential and parliamentary elections Recorded December 10, 2009 in Washington, DC Visit www.ncusar.org for more information

Yemen Headlined: Contemporary Myths and Empirical Realities - Participating panelists include: > Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Director, Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative, Princeton University, and former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen > Dr. Christopher Boucek, Associate in the Middle East Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace > Mr. Gregory Johnsen, Ph.D. Candidate, Princeton University; Co-Founder, Waq al-Waq: Islam and Insurgency in Yemen Blog; and former Fulbright and American Institute for Yemen Studies Fellow in Yemen > Ambassador James A. Larocco, Near East and South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, U.S. Department of Defense, and former U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait > Dr. Mustafa Alani, Senior Advisor and Research Program Director, Gulf Research Center, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Moderator: > Dr. John Duke Anthony, Founding President and CEO, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations; former Fulbright Fellow in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen; and one of two Americans to have served as an official observer for all four of Yemen's presidential and parliamentary elections Recorded December 10, 2009 in Washington, DC Visit www.ncusar.org for more information