Hudson Institute Events Podcast Creators & Guests

Douglas Farah is an American journalist, author, and national security consultant. Farah served as United Press International bureau chief in El Salvador from 1985 to 1987, and a freelance journalist for The Washington Post, Newsweek, and other publications until being hired as a staff correspondent for The Washington Post in 1992. While working for the Post, Farah served as bureau chief of Central American and the Caribbean until 1997, international investigative reporter between 1998 and 2000, and of West Africa between 2000 and 2003. He left the Post in 2004, and has since authored two books and served as a contributor to peer reviewed publications such as the Journal of International Affairs and analysis pieces for Foreign Policy and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Ben Judah is a journalist.Judah was a policy fellow in London at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at the European Stability Initiative in Istanbul, and a research fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C. In 2020, he joined the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. as a Nonresident Senior Fellow.Judah has written for The New York Times, and The Sunday Times. He has been a guest on CNN, BBC News and Channel 4 News and is a contributing writer for Politico Europe. His first book, "Fragile Empire," was published in 2013.

Dr. Lina Khatib is an authority on the Middle East. Her research focuses on the international relations of the Middle East, Islamist groups and security, political transitions and foreign policy, with special attention to the Syrian conflict. Currently, she is Director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London. She also writes the weekly Middle East newsletter for the World Politics Review.Previously, Khatib was director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, and was director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. Before that, she co-founded and led the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.Khatib has two books and has co-authored, edited, or co-edited four other books. She is a frequent writer and commentator on current affairs in the Middle East, with appearances on channels like CNN and BBC and op-eds in outlets such as Foreign Policy, TIME, Foreign Affairs, and the Guardian.Khatib is also a musician nad visual artist. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in group shows like Newtopia: The State of Human Rights (Mechelen, 2012) and a solo show, 24 Hours on Hamra Street (London, 2018). She is currently developing a theatrical piece on politics and society in the Middle East.

Walter Russell Mead is an American academic, James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College. He previously taught American foreign policy at Yale University, former editor-at-large of The American Interest magazine, columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and a scholar at the Hudson Institute.

Andrew J. Tabler is a Senior Fellow of Arab Politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he focuses on Syria, the Levant, and U.S. Middle East Policy, and directs the Institute's Junior Research Program.Previously, Tabler was senior advisor to the Special Envoy for Syria Engagement at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Before that, he was director for Syria at the National Security Council's Middle East Affairs Directorate. Before that, he lived, worked, and studied extensively in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey. He was co-founder and editor-in-chief of Syria Today, Syria's first private-sector English-language magazine. He was a consultant on U.S.-Syria relations for the International Crisis Group, and a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs.Tabler has also been an editor at the Middle East Times and the Cairo Times, before becoming senior editor and director of editorial for the Oxford Business Group.Tabler’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs. He has appeared on CNN, NBC, CBS, PBS, NPR, and the BBC. His first book, "In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria," was published in 2011.Tabler received his B.A. from Washington & Jefferson College and his M.A. in Comparative Politics from the American University in Cairo.