Lawfare Daily: Breaking Down the Lebanon Ceasefire
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today's episode, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sits down with several leading experts to break down the recent ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel and what it might mean for their ongoing conflict, and the broader conflict with Iran.
Joel Braunold is a contributing editor at Lawfare as well as the managing director of the Center Project. Dan Byman is a foreign policy editor at Lawfare as well as the director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Mona Yacoubian is the director of the Middle East Program at CSIS.
Together, Scott, Dan, and Mona first discuss the contours of this latest Israel-Lebanon war, the nature of the ceasefire, and what will likely be needed for it to lead to a more enduring and stable resolution of the conflict. Scott and Joel then sit down separately a day later to specifically discuss Israel's view of the conflict and approach to the ceasefire, and what recent events might tell us about, among other things, Israeli-U.S. relations.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I will point out this is a very unilateral approach to this whole problem, where Israel is simply saying, look, we're going to solve this by removing the threat completely rather than negotiating over it or otherwise trying to build up alternatives to Hezbollah. |
| 0:18.1 | It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm senior editor Scott R. Anderson, here with Dan Baiman and Mona Yucubian of the Center for Strategic |
| 0:25.4 | International Studies and Joel Bronald of the Center Project. |
| 0:29.2 | Are they able to reach some kind of inter-aroma agreement? |
| 0:32.6 | I do not see the big comprehensive deal that includes Iran's nuclear ambitions, etc., being addressed |
| 0:39.0 | in this round of talks. Today, we're discussing the recent ceasefire in Lebanon and what it may |
| 0:44.5 | mean for the broader region. Due to some scheduling difficulties, I first sat down with |
| 0:48.7 | Dan Biman and Moni Yubian for a conversation on April 21st, then talked with Joel Brownell separately |
| 0:53.5 | the next day. |
| 0:55.0 | Notably, after the Islamabad talks were ongoing during my first conversation with Dan and Mona had ended inconclusively. |
| 1:01.0 | Here is my first conversation with Dan and Mona recorded on April 21st. |
| 1:04.9 | So we've seen a very eventful couple of weeks, but particularly a couple of days in regards to Lebanon. We know Israel |
| 1:13.6 | started a second front in Lebanon or engaged in a second front. I think it's a little bit open for |
| 1:18.0 | debate who started it after the initial conflict with Iran a couple of weeks ago. That has been |
| 1:23.5 | ongoing in a point of tension as part of the broader conflict with Iran. As soon as the |
| 1:28.0 | United States and Iran hit upon a two-week ceasefire about two weeks ago now, we saw what some |
| 1:34.6 | have described as the Black Wednesday strikes on Lebanon by Israel, an aggressive and |
| 1:39.9 | tactically impressive, I think it's fair to say, set of strikes hitting hundreds of |
| 1:44.6 | hundreds of targets in a short window of time, inflicting a lot of damage on Hezbole infrastructure, |
| 1:49.6 | hitting targets in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon as well. But that has proven to be a |
| 1:54.6 | diplomatic point of concern for the broader U.S. Iran discussions, which led the United |
| 2:00.1 | States to push for and apparently |
... |
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