Babel: Translating the Middle East
Center for Strategic and International Studies
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S8E70 Babel Special: Jon Alterman's Next Chapter
This week on a special edition of Babel, Will Todman speaks with Jon Alterman, the creator of Babel and the show’s host since it began in 2019. They discuss Jon’s reflections on 22 years directing…
S8E69 Mohanad Hage Ali: Hezbollah and the Captagon Trade
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director for research at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Mohanad's latest paper for Carnegie investigates the rise…
S8E68 Analysis: Will Trump’s Houthi Deal Stick?
On Tuesday, May 6, President Trump declared that the United States would immediately halt its bombing of Houthi targets, bringing an end to months of intensified U.S. strikes across Yemen. The…
S8E67 Dina Esfandiary: Will Iran Make a Deal with Trump?
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dina Esfandiary, the Middle East Geoeconomics Lead at Bloomberg. Previously, Dr. Esfandiary served as a senior adviser for the Middle East and North…
S8E66 Analysis: Trump’s Novel Middle East Diplomacy
The United States is currently engaged in several high-stakes negotiations across the Middle East and around the world. President Trump has departed from traditional diplomatic norms, opting instead…
S8E65 Craig Larkin: The Politics of Memory, From Mosul to Beirut to Gaza
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Craig Larkin, director of the Center for the Study of Divided Societies at King’s College London. Dr. Larkin is also a research lead on Memory and…
S8E64 Analysis: Iran, Deal or No Deal?
While seated beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 7, President Trump announced that the United States will imminently initiate talks with Iran over its nuclear program. The…
S8E63 Dahlia Scheindlin: Israel’s Political Turmoil
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based political analyst and Haaretz columnist. Scheindlin also serves as a fellow at Century International and has…
S8E62 Analysis: Trump Takes on the Houthis
On March 15, the United States launched a wave of attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen. The Trump administration had pledged to step up efforts initiated by President Biden to combat Houthi assaults on…
S8E61 Nicolas Pelham: Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syria’s Future
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Nicolas Pelham, the Middle East correspondent for The Economist. Nicolas has worked in the Middle East and North Africa for more than 30 years and has…
S8E60 Renad Mansour and Sanam Vakil: Iranian Networks in the Middle East
On March 4, Jon Alterman spoke with Renad Mansour, senior research fellow and director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House, and Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program…
S8E59 Analysis: Trump’s Middle East Strategy
On Tuesday night, President Trump delivered the first broadcast address of his second term to Congress. Though his remarks on the Middle East were sparing and largely expected, U.S. policy in the…
S8E58 Max Bergmann: Does Europe Matter in the Middle East?
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Max Bergmann, head of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at CSIS. Previously, Max held a variety of positions at the State Department, including…
S8E57 Analysis: Are U.S.-Russia Talks a Win for the Saudis?
On Tuesday this week, Saudi Arabia hosted the first set of high-level talks between the United States and Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Saudi Arabia’s role in facilitating the…
S8E56 Alessandro Accorsi: Disinformation Warfare in the Middle East
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Alessandro Accorsi, a senior analyst for social media and conflict at the International Crisis Group. Prior to joining ICG, he worked for five years at…
S8E55 Analysis: Netanyahu Comes to Washington
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is President Trump’s first foreign visitor since he re-entered the White House in January. The two men will meet Tuesday night, and Netanyahu will also meet…
S8E54 Sinem Adar: Turkey's Syria Challenge
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Sinem Adar, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), where she works at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies.…
S8E53 Analysis: Gaza Peace?
Last Sunday, Hamas released three female Israeli hostages that it had kidnapped on October 7, in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. The deal was the first step in the first…
S8E52 eL Seed: Arabic Calligraffiti
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with eL Seed, an award-winning French-Tunisian artist whose monumental artwork blending the styles of Arabic calligraphy and graffiti is spreading in the Arab…
S8E51 Analysis: Syria’s Bid for Sanctions Relief
Just a month after Bashar al-Assad fell in Syria, the country is in the midst of a swirl of regional diplomacy. The new Syrian foreign minister is on another regional swing, and the foreign ministers…
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Babel: Translating the Middle East has published 284 episodes since September 2019, covering topics in Government, News.
Babel: Translating the Middle East is currently dormant with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 19m.
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