Gregory D. Johnsen

Gregory Dean Johnsen (born 1978–1979) is an American historian, journalist, and political analyst. A postgraduate of Princeton University, he is a leading expert on Yemen as well as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He is currently an associate director United States Air Force Academy's Institute for Future Conflict and a non-resident fellow at The Arab Gulf States Institute.

Early life and education Johnson was born in 1978 or 1979Efn|He was 24 years old by 2003, when he first visited Yemen. He recalled his interest in academia originating from his mother reading bedtime stories to him as a child. He also developed an interest in the desert from reading The Black Stallion series.

While attending Hastings College, an injury during a soccer tournament prior to his sophomore year led Johnsen to further focus on his education. He said the course "The Greek and Roman World" taught by Robert Babcock was greatly influential to him and spurred his interest in history. He graduated in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in history.

After serving with the Peace Corps in Jordan from 2001 to 2002, and later graduated with a master's degree in Near Eastern Studies.

Career Several sources have characterized Johnsen as a leading expert on the subject matter of Yemen. He has been called an "all-things-Yemen-expert", with Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com praising his "objective, expert-level factual analysis".

The governments of the United States and the United Kingdom have been advised by Johnsen on issues concerning Yemen. He led a group of post-secondary students on a visit to Yemen in 2006 as part of a Department of State program, He was also the lead writer for the Syria Study Group, a project commissioned by the United States Institute of Peace in 2019.

From 2016 to 2018, the United Nations Security Council employed Johnsen on its Panel of Experts on Yemen, responsible for managing sanctions related to the Yemeni civil war. In March 2018, after the US had blocked the nomination of a Russian expert on the panel on Sudan, Russia in turn blocked Johnsen's re-nomination for his own panel. A Russian diplomat later told him the withholding was due to "great power politics" between the US and Russia. the Center for Middle East Policy of the Brookings Institution, and the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies, where he was the editor of the Yemen Review as a non-resident fellow, and the Arabia Foundation. He remains with both institutions as of 2025.

Publications Alongside Brian O'Neill, Johnsen co-founded the blog Waq al-Waq, which Logos described as "a forum for analysis of developments" in Yemen. The blog covered history and current affairs in Yemen, and conflicts including the al-Qaeda insurgency, the Houthi insurgency, and the Southern Movement. The blog is "well known in national security circles" according to Rachel Martin, with the Center for a New American Security regarding it as "required reading for anyone serious about Yemen". His 2012 book The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia covers the history of al-Qaeda's presence.