This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Karim Elgendy, an expert on climate and energy policy in the Middle East and North Africa. Elgendy is the associate director at Buro Happold, an associate fellow at Chatham House, and a senior non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. They talk about the geopolitics of climate change, the challenges hinde ... Show More
May 2025
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 the CSIS Middle East Program, his analysis of how the Middle East policy ecosystem ... Show More
34m 59s
May 2025
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 of a new form of drug smuggling in Lebanon. Together, they discuss Hezbollah’s i ... Show More
50m 16s
May 2025
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 president linked the policy reversal to what he described as the Iran-backed Houthis’ c ... Show More
6m 13s
Aug 2025
The Middle East's Water and Climate Crisis: Lessons from Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf
In this episode of Middle East Focus, host Alistair Taylor is joined by climate, energy, and sustainability expert Karim Elgendy to examine the growing water and climate crisis across the Middle East. They explore how climate change, mismanagement, and regional politics are strai ... Show More
32m 43s
Jan 2025
Shifting Landscape of Middle East Cooperation
In this episode of MEnbar, host Marc Owen Jones welcomes Galip Dalay, a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, to explore the shifting landscape of Middle East cooperation. Dalay discusses regional integration efforts, from the Abraham Accords to ... Show More
52m 11s
Sep 2020
Energy: Daniel Yergin on Energy, Climate, and Geopolitics
This week’s guest is Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer prize winning author and renowned expert in energy, international relations, and economics. We discuss his latest book is The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations (available now). Topics include: the growing conflict betw ... Show More
47m 1s
Nov 2022
COP27 and Europe's climate role — A new Cold War?
On this week's episode, host Suzanne Lynch in Brussels speaks with Karl Mathiesen, POLITICO's senior climate correspondent, at the COP27 climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. And we discuss whether we are entering a new Cold War with historian and author Professor Mary Sa ... Show More
38m 32s
Oct 2024
Pins and Needles in the Middle East
CSIS's Jon Alterman, director of the CSIS Middle East Program, joins the podcast to discuss Iran's missile strikes in Israel, Israel's entry into Lebanon, attacks on Hezbollah, and more as the conflict in the Middle East continues to expand.
25m 26s