This article examines the translation policies set up by Western public and private bodies towards the Arab World since the Second World War, focusing first on the mass media, then on translated books, situating these policies in their respective colonial and postcolonial contexts. The author characterizes the translations produced through these programmes as “exportation translations”, as opposed to “important translations” produced by local actors. He then discusses the differences and similarities implied by these two kinds of translation in the modern Arab context, in regard to translation choices and strategies, translational norms, and status of the Arab translator, suggesting in conclusion that the Arabic translator experiences what Bourdieu refers to as a souffrance de position (positional suffering) as a result of the unequal relationship that prevails between Arab societies and the main Western powers.