In our first episode, Jon Alterman sits down with Ambassador Bill Burns about the role of the United States in the Middle East. Amb. Burns is the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the former deputy secretary of state, and the author of The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for its Renewal. Jon, Will, and Amber also discuss escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, and we finish with a look at how some couples are opting for a new type of gold in their wedding dowries.

James McAuley, “Hezbollah downs Israeli drone in ongoing tension between Iranian-backed groups and Israel,” Washington Post, September 9, 2019.

David Halbfinger, Ben Hubbard, and Ronen Bergman, “The Israel-Iran shadow war escalates and breaks into the open,” New York Times, August 28, 2019.

William Burns and Jake Sullivan, “We led successful negotiations with Iran. Trump’s approach isn’t working,” Atlantic, May 16, 2019.

Hannah Porter, “Fool’s gold?” CSIS, January 18, 2019.