As he says, Yemen is in the spotlight
Last week, counterterrorism and Middle East security expert Daniel Byman discussed how and why Yemen is in the spotlight. He was one of the speakers on a Brookings Institution panel discussion, “al-Qaeda in Yemen” (excerpt below). Other guests included Gregory Johnsen and Bruce Riedel.
Yemen is not the next Afghanistan
Yemen and Afghanistan are not interchangeable as some media coverage suggests, Gregory Johnsen says in the video below, a half hour talk about the country for bloggingheads.tv. Johnsen is a scholar and expert on Yemen (see here). He’s much in demand these days as news outlets scramble to learn more about this small nation.
Other topics touched on in the interview hosted by Mark Leon Goldberg of American Prospect magazine include what the news media gets wrong about Yemen, and what the U.S. and the UN should do there.
Two things I especially like in listening to Johnsen: One he is young, so this may be why cynicism doesn’t murk up his opinions. And that’s more than a little refreshing. Two, it’s evident that Johnsen loves Yemen, its culture and its people, so his analysis includes respect and concern for his subject.
Here’s the video:
Talking about Yemen
With so much USA media and political attention now being given to Yemen, I’ve been trying to learn more about the country itself. A good place to start for anyone else interested in doing the same is a short Harper’s Magazine online Q&A with Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen (“Six Questions for Gregory Johnsen on Yemen” Jan 7, 2010). Johnsen is a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen.
And while checking out Johnsen’s blog on Yemen, I came across a link to this striking ForeignPolicy.com photo series of the country (“Daily Life in Yemen” Feb 2009, photographer Sandy Choi).
.
