Babel: Translating the Middle East

In the Jordan Valley, influential tribal members and landowners have steady access to water, while individual consumers and small farmers struggle. A new Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program, adapted from a vignette in our report, "Sustainable States: Environment, Governance, and the Future of the Middle East."

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Tamar Hermann, a senior fellow with the Israel Democracy Institute who has been analyzing Israeli polling data for decades. They talk about the rightward shift of young Jewish Israelis, changing attitudes toward Arab citizens of Israel, and the rising politics of grievances there. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Natasha Hall and Danny Sharp about the l...

Increasingly, a range of dialects have appeared on television and in movies. Arab children’s television, however, has proven surprisingly immune to the trend. A new Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program.  

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Helen Lackner, the author of the new book, Yemen: Poverty and Conflict, who has spent five decades covering Yemen. ​​​​​​​ They talk about how conflict has been endemic in Yemen for hundreds of years, how the current conflict fits into that history, and what a post-conflict Yemen could look like. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Natasha Hall and Caleb H...

Amid a worsening economic crisis, Lebanon is facing yet another shortage: a lack of foreign workers to work as maids and nannies in Lebanese homes. Despite a high unemployment rate among Syrians living in Lebanon, they aren't likely to be part of the solution. A New Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Ali al-Saffar, the Middle East and North Africa program manager at the International Energy Agency (IEA). They talk about the state of electric grids in the Middle East; renewable electricity and the energy transition; and why some Middle Eastern countries have too little electricity, why some have too much, and why that matters. Then, Jon continues the conversa...

Many countries have large trade deficits with oil producers in the Middle East, but Brazil is deep in surplus: it isn’t hungry for oil imports, but the region's consumers are hungry for its meat. A New Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Mahsa Alimardani, a scholar at the University of Oxford and a senior researcher with Article19. They talk about the recent protests in Iran and how both protestors and the regime have used social media, the cat and mouse game of online access and censorship in Iran, and what Western social media companies can be doing to better moderate their platforms. Then, Jo...

Israel's generous subsidies for in-vitro-fertilization (IVF) have earned it the highest per capita rate of IVF procedures in the world, but that generosity may soon literally overflow with a decades-long buildup of frozen embryos.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Sami Atallah, the founding director of The Policy Initiative in Beirut. They talk about Lebanon's three year old financial crisis, its struggle with political accountability, and where change might come from. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Will Todman and Caleb Harper about how donors and the international community are thinking about Lebanon. Sami At...

Tunisia’s revolution in 2011 improved many things, but the odors of Tunis was not one of them. This Mezze was adapted from the Middle East Program's report, "Sustainable States: Environment, Governance, and the Future of the Middle East."

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Marc Owen Jones, an assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He is the author of the recently released book, Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East. They talk about governments' longstanding efforts to shape the news environment in Middle Eastern states, and how the rise of social media creates new opportunitie...

To protect water resources in Lebanon, it takes more than just government action. This Mezze is adapted from a short vignette in our Sustainable States: Environment, Governance, and the Future of the Middle East. A New Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Olivia Lazard, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe focusing on the geopolitics of climate and the transitions ushered by climate change. They talk about the political and social impacts of climate change in the Middle East, what states in the region are already doing to mitigate the effects of climate change, and the bigger, transformative policy changes that...

In Saudi Arabia, religious leaders warn that there's a new sin to add to the list: flashing your emergency lights to warn other drivers of upcoming speed cameras. A new Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Marsin Alshamary, a research fellow with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard’s Belfer Center. We talk about the ongoing crisis happening outside of Iraq’s parliament, why the current intra-Shi’a conflict is unique and how it echoes similar crises before, and where Iran and the United States stand. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Will Todman and Lubna...

Egypt doesn't have the most famous Middle Eastern cuisine, but few would call it deadly. That may be changing. A new Mezze from the Middle East Program at CSIS.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Ambassador Beth van Schaack, the State Department's ambassador-at-large for Global Criminal Justice. They talk about holding perpetrators of atrocities accountable in Syria, how accountability and justice fit into U.S. foreign policy, and the ways in which accountability looks different the for winners and losers of conflicts. Then, Jon continues the conversatio...

More and more people in the Middle East are accusing their governments of lying about the weather—falsely reporting lower temperatures to skirt UN regulations that prevent workers from laboring in searing conditions. Government weather reports may be off by a few degrees, but the critics are off by a mile. A new Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Henry Rome, deputy head of research at the Eurasia Group and a longtime watcher of Israel and Iran. They talk about negotiations for a new nuclear deal with Iran and why they've stalled, scenarios for where negotiations and Iran's nuclear program might go from here, and how the region might change if Iran successfully develops a nuclear weapon. Then, Jon continu...

Some Lebanese investors have turned to the beer and wine industry as the Lebanese economy tumbles and holding dollar deposits in banks becomes riskier. But a crisis is brewing, and alcohol may not be able to provide a pathway out of it. A New Mezze from the Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Gregory Gause, professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University and a longstanding expert on Saudi Arabia. They talk about President Biden's upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia and what both sides hope to get out of the meeting, why Gause thinks that the United States should focus on order in the Middle East, and how the energy transition will impact U.S. en...

Israel has more vegans per capita than any other country. Within that community is tremendous diversity.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Frank Verrastro, a senior advisor with the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at CSIS. They talk about price volatility in the energy market, President Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia and its potential effect on the oil supply, and the current bottlenecks affecting the production of oil and natural gas. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Will Todman...

Street children are an unfortunately common presence on Morocco’s city streets. Police in Agadir think they have an answer: DNA testing. A new Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program.