Babel: Translating the Middle East

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Nadia Oweidat, a Middle East fellow at the Wilson Center and an assistant professor at Kansas State University. They talk about Russian disinformation efforts in Arabic media outlets, how authoritarian states in the region are amplifying those efforts, and how she thinks Western governments should respond. Then, Natasha Hall, Will Todman, and Caleb Harper contin...

Years after Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group (ISG), locals in the territory it formerly controlled continue to complain of a campaign of retribution. Now, they believe the government has a new strategy to punish them: building a dam. A new Mezze from the Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Ambassador Fred Hof about his new book, Reaching for the Heights: The Inside Story of a Secret Attempt to Reach a Syrian-Israeli Peace. They talk about Ambassador Hof's effort to negotiate peace between Syria and Israel between 2009 and 2011, what complicated those efforts, what he thinks he could have done differently, and the qualities that make for a good med...

In Bahrain, municipal authorities claim that seagulls are "too fat to fly," and they say that Bahrain's growing food waste is to blame. A new Mezze from the Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Dr. Haider al-Abadi, an Iraqi politician who served as prime minister from 2014 to 2018, while the country was battling the Islamic State Group (ISG). They talk about his decision making as prime minister, the Iraqi government's response to the ISG, and the limits of decentralization in Iraq. Then, Jon, Natasha Hall, and Danny Sharp continue the conversation abo...

Some find going to the dentist traumatic. In Morocco, the experience could be especially so, because the dentist may turn out never to have gone to dental school. A new Mezze from the Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy to Yemen. They speak about the UN-negotiated ceasefire in Yemen, recent U.S. diplomatic efforts in the country, and what makes the current moment in Yemen different than other openings in the past. Then, Jon, Will Todman, and Caleb Harper continue the conversation about the interplay between U.S. and UN diplomatic engagemen...

Storing pallets of vegetable oil in your garage might earn you some strange looks; in Algeria, it can land you in prison. A new Mezze from the Middle East Program at CSIS.

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.   In the seventh episode, Jon concludes th...

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.   In part six, Jon explores how people and...

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.   In part five, Jon takes a look at U.S. s...

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.   In part four, Jon analyzes U.S. diplomac...

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.   In part three, Jon looks at how the Unit...

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.   In part two, Jon traces the story of the...

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Jon Alterman, senior vice president, Zbigniew Brzezinski chair in global security and geostrategy, and director of the Middle East Program, sits down with some of the preeminent foreign policy experts and former policymaker...

This week on Babel, I speak with Jane Arraf, the Baghdad bureau chief for the New York Times. She's spent more than a quarter-century as a journalist in the Middle East, working for National Public Radio, CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, and other leading outlets. I talk with Jane about the way that Iraq is becoming surprisingly normal, how Iraqis think about sectarianism now, and the way in wh...

Conflicts in the Middle East lead to increased demand for cosmetic surgery, and for some the results are tragic.

This week on Babel, we're doing things a bit differently. Freeing ourselves from the world of Zoom and time zones, Jon sat down in person this week with Middle East Program senior fellow Natasha Hall, whose report "Rescuing Aid in Syria" was released yesterday. They recorded their conversation on Natasha's report in a new CSIS studio, and you can watch it here. After Jon's discussion with Natasha,...

In Morocco, the same industry that is helping to construct new tourism developments is also depleting the very coastline that those developments rely upon. A New Mezze from the Middle East Program. This episode was adapted from our monthly Mezze series, shining a spotlight on under-discussed trends and debates shaping the Middle East. You can read past examples of our Mezzes on the CSIS website.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American journalist who grew up in California and moved to Iran to report in 2009. In 2012, he joined the Washington Post, and in 2014, he was arrested and spent 544 days in Iran's Evin Prison. Jon and Rezaian talk about why he went to Iran, what the U.S. government gets wrong about Iranians, and how Iranian leaders think about hostage-...

In the olive tree-rich region of Afrin in northwestern Syria, a different type of oil fuels the wartime economy—olive oil. A new Mezze from the Middle East Program. This episode was adapted from our monthly Mezze series, shining a spotlight on under-discussed trends and debates shaping the Middle East. You can read past examples of our Mezzes on the CSIS website.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Bassem Youssef. He's an Egyptian satirist who parlayed his low-budget Youtube program into Al-Bernameg, the most popular show of the Arab Spring. At its height, he had a weekly audience of more than 30 million viewers. They talk about how he got his start on television, the role of satire in political conflict, and why he fled Egypt months after the military ret...

As Covid-19 restrictions reduced hajj numbers in 2021, Saudi Arabia had a prime opportunity to beta-test new crowd-control technology. A New Mezze from the CSIS Middle East Program. Stay tuned until the end for a special note from Jon about this new season of Babel. If you'd like to help us shape this upcoming season of Babel and the chance to win a free Babel mug, please fill out a short 8 questi...

This week on Babel, Jon talks with his longtime friend Dr. Kristin Diwan, a scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Kristin analyzes how young Gulf Arabs' eagerness for change finds public expression, how Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman has sought to shape young peoples' attitudes for reform in Saudi Arabia, and how young people are engaging in their own regional dialogues a...

The Middle East has plenty of water problems without warfare. As warfare becomes more common, water is becoming an increasingly common weapon. A New Mezze from the Middle East Program.