Will Todman

Chief of Staff, Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department; and Senior Fellow, Middle East Program
Will Todman

Will Todman is the chief of staff of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and a senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He was previously deputy director of the Middle East Program. He has over a decade of experience working on conflict, governance, and displacement in the Middle East, and has conducted field research in 12 countries across the region. Will has written for, contributed to, and commented on leading outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, CBS, and CNN, and he has testified to the UK Parliament. He has also taught and lectured graduate students at various universities. Before joining CSIS in 2016, Will worked at the Institute for the Study of International Migration, for the office of the UN special envoy to Syria, and at the British Embassy in Beirut. Will is a Penn Kemble fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, a Global Diversity in International Affairs fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a fellow at the Centre for Syrian Studies at St. Andrews University. He also co-founded a nonprofit organization that works with refugees and immigrants in the Washington DC area, which he led for seven years. Will holds a BA in Arabic and modern Hebrew from Oxford University and an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, where he studied Persian intensively. He is also proficient in French and Spanish.

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Babel: Translating the Middle East

Craig Larkin: The Politics of Memory, From Mosul to Beirut to Gaza

Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Craig Larkin to unpack different approaches taken to reconstruction and reconciliation after violence in the Middle East. 

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman, Ninar Fawal, Martin Pimentel, and Will Todman — April 17, 2025

CSIS Babel
Babel: Translating the Middle East

Dahlia Scheindlin: Israel’s Political Turmoil

Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based political analyst and Haaretz columnist. Together, they discuss the sources of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s staying power, as well as his ongoing efforts to remodel key state institutions.

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman, Ninar Fawal, and Will Todman — April 3, 2025

CSIS Babel
Babel: Translating the Middle East

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 to discuss the Middle East issues that unite and divide European countries, and how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be reshaping European perspectives on the region.

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman, Max Bergmann, Martin Pimentel, and Will Todman — February 27, 2025

CSIS Babel

U.S. Allies and Partners Under the Trump Administration

Please join the CSIS Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department for a discussion of the ways in which U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Americas are navigating the new administration’s policies.

Event — February 18, 2025

Babel: Translating the Middle East

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). Together, they discuss Turkey's evolving interests in Syria and their connection to Turkey’s wider foreign policy agenda. 

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman, Martin Pimentel, and Will Todman — January 28, 2025

CSIS Babel

Lebanon Finally Elects a President

On January 9, Lebanon’s parliament elected General Joseph Aoun as president following 12 failed attempts to elect a president. Middle East Program deputy director and senior fellow Will Todman answers critical questions about Lebanon’s latest political developments.

Critical Questions by Will Todman — January 10, 2025

Audio Briefs

Lebanon Finally Elects a President

An audio version of “Lebanon Finally Elects a President,” a new Critical Questions by CSIS’s Will Todman. This audio was generated with text-to-speech by Eleven Labs. 

Podcast Episode by Will Todman — January 10, 2025

Audio Briefs
Babel: Translating the Middle East

Special: Syria's Post-Assad Scramble

This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Will Todman and Natasha Hall on the sudden collapse of the Assad regime and what will replace it.

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman, Natasha Hall, and Will Todman — December 17, 2024

CSIS Babel

Don’t Rush Syrian Refugees’ Return

After Bashar al-Assad’s ouster in Syria, European countries are rushing to send Syrians back to their home country. But a policy of rapid returns risks undermining the transition, destabilizing the region, and renewing displacement.

Commentary by Will Todman — December 11, 2024

Babel: Translating the Middle East

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 politics. He is a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and the International Centre for Tax and Development at the University of Sussex. Together, they discuss the political, social, and economic functions of smuggling economies in North Africa. 

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman, Martin Pimentel, and Will Todman — December 10, 2024

CSIS Babel