This week Jon is joined by Hassan Hassan, director of the program on non-state actors in geopolitics at the Center for Global Policy and the editor-in-chief of its new online journal, Newlines Magazine. Hassan talks to Jon about his late colleague, Hisham al-Hashimi, and the research Hisham was conducting on the rise of Shi'ite militias in Iraq. Then, Natash ... Show More
May 22
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 15
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 8
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
Jun 2021
How will Mustafa Al Kadhimi rein in Iraq's militias?
Over 13 years, the US spent at least $21.7 billion training and equipping the Iraqi army, police and counter-terror forces. Then, in the space of a few days in the summer of 2014. it all collapsed. As thousands of ISIS fighters poured over the border from Syria, as many as 90,000 ... Show More
25m 37s
Mar 2021
Renad Mansour of Chatham House breaks down Iraq’s power networks and the PMU’s
Renad Mansour, senior research fellow and project director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House, discusses the origins, impacts and trends in Iraq’s protest movements; the influence and role of the US and Iran in Iraqi politics and security; the normalization of Iraq’s foreign ... Show More
40m 43s
Apr 2023
Irak, vingt ans après l'intervention américaine [2/2]
Les États-Unis ont ouvert les portes de l'Irak à l'Iran qui a développé une stratégie d'influence et d'ingérences dans tout le Proche-Orient. L'Iran a aussi accéléré sa quête du nucléaire, garant de non-invasion par un pays hostile. La Turquie, mue par son obsession kurde et par ... Show More
50 m