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Chris Murphy, “America’s Middle East Policy is Outdated and Dangerous,” Foreign Affairs, February 19, 2021.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.