Some find going to the dentist traumatic. In Morocco, the experience could be especially so, because the dentist may turn out never to have gone to dental school. A new Mezze from the Middle East Program.

This week on Babel, Jon speaks with Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy to Yemen. They speak about the UN-negotiated ceasefire in Yemen, recent U.S. diplomatic efforts in the country, and what makes the current moment in Yemen different than other openings in the past. Then, Jon, Will Todman, and Caleb Harper continue the conversation about the interplay between U.S. and UN diplomatic engagement in Yemen, and in the rest of the region.

• Babel, "Peter Salisbury: Yemen's Civil War," CSIS, July 27, 2021.
• Transcript, "Tim Lenderking: Ceasefire in Yemen," CSIS, May 2, 2022.

Storing pallets of vegetable oil in your garage might earn you some strange looks; in Algeria, it can land you in prison. A new Mezze from the Middle East Program at CSIS.

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.  

In the seventh episode, Jon concludes the series by looking at views on how the Middle East should fit into U.S. global strategy. He talks with Stephen Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School; Dalia Dassa Kaye, senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations; Martin Indyk, distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel and as assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs; and Michael Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who served in the Bush administration as a senior director on the National Security Council, a deputy assistant secretary of Defense, and senior advisor in the State Department. 

Michael Doran, "Biden Koshers Iranian Terror," Tablet Magazine, April 13, 2022.
Martin Indyk, "The Price of Retrenchment: What the Ukraine Crisis Reveals About the Post-American Middle East," Foreign Affairs, February 14, 2022.
Dalia Dassa Kaye, "America Is Not Withdrawing From the Middle East," Foreign Affairs, December 1, 2021.
Stephen Walt, "What Comes After the Forever Wars," Foreign Policy, April 28, 2021.
Transcript, "U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East: Part Seven," CSIS, April 19, 2022.

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.  

In part six, Jon explores how people and governments in the Middle East see the United States, what they want from the United States in the region, and how that’s changing. Jon speaks with Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati political scientist; Nabil Fahmy, Cairo’s former ambassador to Washington and later Egypt’s foreign minister; Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut; Alon Pinkas, a former diplomat who worked at the top levels of the Israeli government; and Nasser Hadian, an Iranian political scientist. 

Alon Pinkas, "Israeli Boasting on Iran Isn’t Foreign Policy, It's Just Bragging," Haaretz, April 11, 2022.
Maha Yahya, "The Middle East is on the Brink Again," Foreign Affairs, March 22, 2022.
Nasser Hadian, "Explainer: Iran's Priorities at Nuclear Talks," United States Institute of Peace, January 3, 2022.
Nabil Fahmy, "Adapting to a Region in Flux," Carnegie Middle East Center, May 10, 2021.
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, "The Rise of the United Arab Emirates," The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Spring 2021.
Transcript, "U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East: Part Six," CSIS, April 12, 2022.

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.  

In part five, Jon takes a look at U.S. soft power in the Middle East, and just what makes American culture, ideals, and institutions enduringly attractive in the region—and around the world. He talks with Paul Salem, president of the Middle East Institute; Lisa Anderson, who served as the president of the American University in Cairo from 2011 to 2016; and Alanoud Alsharekh, a Kuwaiti women's rights activist and an associate fellow at Chatham House.

Paul Salem, "Why the Arab Spring Failed—And Why It May Yet Succeed," TIME, January 5, 2021.
Lisa Anderson, "Is There a Future for American Universities in the Middle East?" Foreign Affairs, March 22, 2019.
Alanoud Alsharekh, Angry Words Softly Spoken: A Comparative Study of English and Arabic Women Writers, 2006.
Transcript, "U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East: Part Five," CSIS, April 5, 2022.

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.  

In part four, Jon analyzes U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East, and how U.S. policymakers have thought about U.S. diplomatic power in the region. He talks with Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a career diplomat with over four decades of experience, including as U.S. ambassador to the UN and to six other countries, and as the undersecretary of State for political affairs; Nathalie Tocci, an Italian scholar who served as a key advisor to the European Union’s chief diplomat; and Brian Katulis, senior fellow and vice president of policy at the Middle East Institute who served in the National Security Council, the State Department, and the Department of Defense during the Clinton administration.

Brian Katulis and Peter Juul, “Seeking a New Balance for U.S. Policy in the Middle East,” Center for American Progress, September 7, 2021.
Nathalie Tocci, "Transatlantic Action Plan: Middle East and North Africa," Harvard Belfer Center, February 2021.
Thomas Pickering, “Keynote remarks: the geopolitics of the Gulf from an American perspective,” Gulf International Forum, October 23, 2019.  
Transcript, "U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East: Part Four," CSIS, March 29, 2022.

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.  

In part three, Jon looks at how the United States has used its economic toolkit in the region, and how successful sanctions and development aid have been in advancing U.S. interests in the Middle East. He speaks with Howard Shatz, a senior economist at RAND who served with the Bush administration’s Council of Economic Advisors in 2007-2008; Amy Hawthorne, the deputy director for research for the Project on Middle East Democracy who served as a senior advisor for Near Eastern Affairs in the State Department during the Arab Spring; and Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s Iran project director.  

Howard Shatz. "The Power and Limits of Threat: The Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act at One Year,” Real Clear Defense. July 7, 2021.  
Amy Hawthorne, "Egypt: Trends in Politics, Economics, and Human Rights," Before The House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism, 116th Congress, 2020.
Ali Vaez and Naysan Rafati, “U.S. Maximum Pressure Meets Iranian Maximum Pressure,” International Crisis Group, November 5, 2019. 
Transcript, "U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East: Part Three," CSIS, March 15, 2022.

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Over seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.  

In part two, Jon traces the story of the last two decades of heavy U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, identifying how it’s changed the U.S. military and the way that the United States engages in the region. He speaks with Gen. Joseph Votel, a career army officer with over 40 years of service, most recently as commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) from 2016 to 2019; Eliot Cohen, the Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at CSIS who served as counselor for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the height of the surge in Iraq; and Kori Schake, a member of the National Security Council during President Bush’s first term and the deputy director of policy planning at the State Department in his second term.

Kori Schake, Jim Mattis, Jim Ellis, and Joe Felter, “Defense in Depth: Why U.S. Security Depends on Alliances—Now More Than Ever,” Foreign Affairs, November 23, 2020. 
Joseph Votel, "Between Then and Now, They Did Not Die in Vain," Defense One, September 9, 2021.
Eliot Cohen, The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force (New York: Basic Books, 2016).  
Transcript, "U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East: Part Two," CSIS, March 15, 2022.

In seven episodes, the Babel: U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East podcast miniseries will take a closer look at two decades of heightened U.S. engagement in the region. Jon Alterman, senior vice president, Zbigniew Brzezinski chair in global security and geostrategy, and director of the Middle East Program, sits down with some of the preeminent foreign policy experts and former policymakers who have helped shape U.S. policy in the region. Over the next seven weeks, Babel will cover how the United States has used its military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power tools in the Middle East—and how the Middle East has responded.  

In this first episode, Jon explores how the United States became more deeply enmeshed in the Middle East, how its role in the region has changed, and how some people think it needs to change a lot more. He talks with Ambassador Anne Patterson, a career diplomat with more than 40 years of experience in the Middle East and around the globe, most recently as assistant secretary of state for the Near East and North Africa from 2013 to 2017; Andrew Bacevich, a retired army officer, former West Point professor, and the president of the Quincy Institute; and Karim Makdisi, a professor of international relations at the American University of Beirut. 

Anne Patterson, "We Have to Be There," The Foreign Service Journal, September 2019. 
Karim Makdisi, "Teaching Trump's America First in/from Beirut," Political Science and Politics (vol 53:2), April 2020. 
Andrew Bachevich, America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History. Random House, 2016. 
Transcript, "U.S. Power and Influence in the Middle East: Part One," CSIS, March 8, 2022.