The Iran Breakdown with Mark Dubowitz

Iran’s Nightmare: No War, No Relief (feat. Miad Maleki)

The Islamic Republic may discover that surviving the war was the easy part. Its military has been mauled, its deterrence shattered, its proxies weakened, and now an alrea

After Iran: Is Erdogan’s Turkey the Middle East’s Next Great Threat? (feat. Steven A. Cook and Jonathan Schanzer)

For decades, Washington and Jerusalem worried about Iran dominating the Middle East. But as the Islamic Republic weakens, is Erdogan’s Turkey positioning itself to become

Energy Wars: America, Iran and the Battle of Hormuz (feat. Rich Goldberg)

In this episode of The Iran Breakdown, Mark Dubowitz sits down with FDD’s Rich Goldberg for a wide-ranging discussion on Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, global energy markets

The Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary DNA (feat. Haviv Rettig Gur)

What makes the Islamic Republic of Iran different from a conventional regime seeking security, prosperity, and survival? Its ideological DNA fuses Maoist revolutionary th

Subterranean Warfare: Can Pickaxe Mountain Be Destroyed? (feat. Yadin Soffer)

The next battlefield isn’t in the sky or at sea—it’s underground. The Islamic Republic, together with Hamas and Hezbollah, spent decades building a subterranean fortress

Pickaxe Mountain: Iran’s “Unbustable” Nuclear Bunker? (feat. Andrea Stricker)

Iran isn’t dismantling its nuclear program—it’s burying it deeper underground. At the center of growing U.S. concern is Pickaxe Mountain, a massive underground complex t

The End of the Ceasefire as We Know It? (feat. Rich Goldberg)

The United States has launched a fresh wave of strikes against Iran, hitting roughly 90 targets along the country's coastline, as tensions over the Strait of Hormuz threa

Lebanon: More than "a Piece of the Puzzle" (feat. Carine Hajjar)

The Israel-Lebanon framework brokered by Secretary Rubio may be historic, but Hezbollah still hasn't disarmed. The deal ties Israeli withdrawal to the Lebanese army secur

What Iranians Think About the US-Iran Deal (feat. Medhi Parpanchi)

The 60-day MOU between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States may dominate headlines, but for 90 million Iranians it changes nothing. The agreement contains n

Breaking Down the US-Iran MOU (feat. Robert Greenway)

President Trump has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran, opening a 60-day window to negotiate a final deal. The debate is fierce: does the US-Iran MOU go

What Does Winning In Iran Look Like? (feat. Marc Thiessen)

The clock is ticking on the Islamic Republic — but what does finishing the job actually look like? With the regime battered, broken, and the pressure campaign at a critic

Strait Victory: Bypassing Iran's Hormuz Chokepoint (feat. Richard Goldberg)

The Islamic Republic played one of the few cards it had left: the Strait of Hormuz. How did military planners prepare for this moment? Was a closure inevitable? If the U.

Stolen Revolution: Behind Iran's Protest Movements (feat. Bozorgmehr Sharafedin)

Every Iranian revolution begins with an ordinary life hitting an extraordinary wall. Stolen Revolution captures those moments — the personal reckonings with a regime that

The Iran Deal - What Trump Got, What Iran Got, and What Comes Next (feat. Richard Goldberg)

A deal has been struck. The Strait of Hormuz is reopening. Iran's nuclear program is — allegedly — being curtailed. And sanctions relief is on the way. But what did the U

The Iran Ceasefire Didn't End the Battle for Hormuz (feat. Aaron MacLean)

Is the U.S.-Iran ceasefire built to last? While the bombs have stopped, the strategic Battle for Hormuz continues to threaten global stability. In this episode of The Ira

Winning the Iran War — Whether Washington Knows It or Not

In this special solo episode of The Iran Breakdown, FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz pushes back hard on the narrative that America is losing the war with the Islamic Republic. Step

The Door Tehran Kicked Open: MBS, The Bomb, and The Battle for The Gulf (feat. Bernard Haykel)

Riyadh is pressing Washington with a blunt message: don't leave the job half-finished. Saudi Arabia publicly condemned the strikes — and privately urged Trump to launch

No March on Tehran: The Military Logic of the Iran War (feat. John Spencer)

No tanks. No invasion. No march on Tehran. Instead: a methodical campaign to dismantle Iran’s war machine — missiles, drones, command networks, and the economy keeping i

Operation Economic Fury (feat. Miad Maleki and Rich Goldberg)

Iran isn’t just under pressure. It’s under siege. Its currency is collapsing. Its ports are constrained. Billions are bleeding out as war damage mounts and oil revenue t

Regime Revisionism: Tehran's War Before the Iran War (feat. Jay Solomon & Negar Mojtahedi)

Back in January, the regime carried out the deadliest crackdown in modern Iranian history. As it gunned down protesters in the streets, it launched a parallel war online