Sen. Chris Murphy: U.S. Restraint in the Middle East

CSIS Babel

Podcast Episode by Jon B. Alterman, Will Todman, and Caleb Harper

Published August 10, 2021

This week on Babel, Jon talks with Sen. Chris Murphy, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism. They discuss the U.S. relationship with Gulf allies, regional proxy battles with Iran, investing in Lebanon and Tunisia, and how worried policymakers should be about China's growing engagement with the Middle East. Then, Jon, Will Todman, and Caleb Harper discuss what a policy of greater U.S. restraint in the Middle East might look like and what impacts it might have.

Chris Murphy, “Behind the Scenes of My Trip to the Middle East,” Medium, May 10, 2021.
Jon Alterman, "Focus on Influence, Not Power in the Middle East," DefenseOne, March 25, 2021.
Chris Murphy, “America’s Middle East Policy is Outdated and Dangerous,” Foreign Affairs, February 19, 2021.
Chris Murphy, “How to Make a Progressive Foreign Policy Actually Work,” The Atlantic, October 7, 2019.
Episode Transcript, "U.S. Restraint in the Middle East," CSIS, August 10, 2021.

Jon Alterman

Jon B. Alterman

Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy

Will Todman

Will Todman

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

Caleb Harper

Caleb Harper

Former Program Coordinator and Research Assistant, Middle East Program