Babel: Translating the Middle East
Kanaal Besonderhede
Babel: Translating the Middle East
Babel will take you beyond the headlines to discuss what’s really happening in the Middle East and North Africa. It features regional experts who explain what’s going on, provide context on pivotal developments, and highlight trends you may have missed. Jon Alterman, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Glo...
Onlangse Episodes
284 episodesBabel 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 d...
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'...
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...
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 s...
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 f...
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....
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 ta...
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 a...
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 initiate...
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 an...
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, direc...
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 spa...
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...
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. S...
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. Pri...
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...
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...
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 cust...
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 c...
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...
Special: Syria's Post-Assad Scramble
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Will Todman and Natasha Hall, senior fellows at the CSIS Middle East Program, for a special episode on th...
Max Gallien: Black Markets of the Maghreb
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Max Gallien, a political scientist specializing in informal and illegal economies and North African polit...
Analysis: The Regional Fallout of Syria's Unrest
Last weekend, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate with a base in northwest Syria, launched a surprise offensive. The rebels captu...
Arwa Damon: Gaza's Wounds
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Arwa Damon, a former CNN international correspondent and founder of the International Network for Aid, Re...
Analysis: Saudi Arabia's Economic Plans Stumble
One pillar of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2030 development plan is NEOM, a land development, tourism, and model city project that is projected to...
Mohammad Ali Shabani: Iran After October 7
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Mohammad Ali Shabani, editor of Amwaj.media, a London-based news site focusing on Iran, Iraq, and the Ara...
Analysis: Israel Hits Iran
Just over a week ago, Israel conducted multiple waves of airstrikes against military sites in Iran. These strikes were in response to Iran launching a...
Amjad Iraqi: The Future of Palestinians in Israel
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Amjad Iraqi, a senior editor at +972 Magazine and an associate fellow with Chatham House. He is also affi...
Analysis: Israel's Trajectory
Last week, Israeli forces killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and one of the main architects of the October 7th attack. Less than a month earlier...
Lina Khatib: War Spreads to Lebanon
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Lina Khatib, an associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, whic...
Analysis: Israel's Ground Invasion into Lebanon
One year after the tragedy of October 7th, Israel has launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon to counter Hezbollah. Although it remains uncle...
Peter Schwartzstein: Climate Violence in the Middle East
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Peter Schwartzstein, an environmental journalist who reports on water, food security, and the conflict-cl...
Analysis: Israel-Hezbollah Escalation
On September 23rd, Israeli airstrikes killed more than 180 Lebanese in the country’s deadliest day of conflict since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Th...
Hussein Ibish: Popular Mobilization Since October 7
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a columnist for...
Analysis: The Hostage Crisis in Gaza
Last week, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza. According to Israeli authorities, more than 60 living host...
Isabelle Werenfels: North Africa's Relationship with Europe
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Isabelle Werenfels, a senior fellow in the Middle East and Africa Division of the German Institute fo...
A Mezze: A Fishy Business in Port Said
Egyptians traditionally celebrate Sham Enessim, the country’s pharaonic spring holiday, by eating faseekh, a fermented mullet. But in the weeks prior...
Michelle Nunn: The Challenges of Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Michelle Nunn, the president and CEO of CARE. Michelle leads more than 8,000 people working around the wo...
Analysis: The Aftermath of Haniyeh's Assassination
On July 31, Ismail Haniyeh, a senior leader of Hamas, was killed in Tehran. Just a day earlier, an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah commander in t...
Analysis: Netanyahu's U.S. Visit
Last week, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington D.C. to deliver a speech to a joint meeting of Congress. Leah Hickert speaks w...