The Iran Breakdown with Mark Dubowitz

FDD Podcasts
FDD Podcasts
  • 4.6 (103)
  • News Commentary
  • Updated Biweekly

Welcome to The Iran Breakdown. Hosted by Mark Dubowitz, this show from FDD is here to guide you through one of the most critical geopolitical and human rights challenges facing the world today. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been a central player in global headlines for decades: its pursuit of nuclear weapons, development of a massive missile and drove arsenal, funding of terror groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and others; its oppression of the Iranian people; and its growing alliances with global power states like China, Russia, and North Korea. But beneath the headlines lies a deeper story: a regime that is losing legitimacy, battered nuclear and missile programs, a crumbling economy, a restless population hungry for freedom, and a global community with many conflicting ideas about how to respond. But a regime still standing and dangerous. And that’s what we’ll cover on The Iran Breakdown.

  1. 4d ago

    Brink: Inside America's Confrontation with Iran

    Four American presidents. One persistent enemy. And a confrontation that has brought the Middle East to war. Brett McGurk has spent more than two decades at the center of American Middle East policy, serving Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. Now, in his new book, Brink, he takes readers inside some of the most consequential national security decisions of our time. In this episode of The Iran Breakdown, McGurk draws on his extraordinary firsthand experience to examine America’s long struggle with the Islamic Republic — from failed nuclear diplomacy and Iran’s network of terrorist proxies to October 7, failed negotiations with Tehran, President Biden’s defense of Israel against Iranian missile and drone attacks, and President Trump’s military confrontation to cripple Iranian nuclear and war-making capabilities. What did the Biden administration get right and wrong? Has Trump’s use of military force fundamentally changed the equation? Can Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions be stopped? Is America winning? What are the differences between American and Israeli approaches to confronting the Iran threat? Did the Iran campaign help or hurt our efforts to deter China in a Taiwan crisis scenario. And after four presidencies, what has Washington still failed to understand about the regime in Tehran and the importance of American presence in the Middle East? An insider’s account of American power, presidential decision-making, and the future of the threat from the Islamic Republic.

  2. Oct 8

    The Iran Dilemma: A View from Tokyo and Jerusalem

    Japan occupies a unique position: a close ally of the United States, a strong partner of Israel, and a longtime diplomatic interlocutor with Tehran. In this episode of The Iran Breakdown, Japan’s Ambassador to Israel, Yusuke Arai, offers a rare perspective on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the threats it poses to Israel, lessons from Japan’s experience with North Korea, and the limits of diplomacy and the importance of military deterrence. Ambassador Arai is a veteran diplomat with over 30 years of experience in foreign policy, national security, and intelligence. A former Director-General of Intelligence and Analysis at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he brings a distinctive security perspective shaped by his experience examining Iran and the Middle East from both Tokyo and Israel.

  3. Oct 6

    Inside The Cauldron: Iran, America, Israel, and the End of Khomeinism

    To understand the war unfolding with Iran today — and where it could lead — you have to understand the history that brought the Middle East to this moment. In this episode of The Iran Breakdown, Mark Dubowitz sits down with acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East, to put today’s conflict with Iran in its deeper historical context. When did this war really begin — with October 7, the direct 2025 US-Israel-Iran confrontation, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979? Montefiore traces the forces that shaped the modern Middle East and examines how Khomeini’s revolution transformed Iran, political Islam, and the regional order. The conversation explores what the current war is actually about, how victory should be measured, and whether external pressure can break the Islamic Republic. Mark and Simon also look beyond the current regime: If the Islamic Republic eventually disappears, which parts of Iran’s regional ambitions disappear with it — and which are rooted more deeply in Iranian history, geography, and nationalism? Are we witnessing another violent turn in the Middle East — or the end of the revolutionary cycle that began with Khomeini in 1979? And if that era really is ending, what comes next?

  4. Oct 1

    In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel’s Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis (feat. Yonah Jeremy Bob & Elliot Kaufman)

    Elliot Kaufman and Yonah Jeremy Bob are the co-authors of the new book, In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel’s Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis – an inside account of the decisions, debates, and personalities that shaped Israel’s multi-front war, from October 7 to Hezbollah and ultimately Iran. Elliot Kaufman is an editorial writer and member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, where he focuses on Israel and Iran and has covered the war since October 7. Yonah Jeremy Bob is the senior military analyst at The Jerusalem Post and the author of several books, including Target Tehran. Their reporting draws on extensive access to senior military, intelligence, and political officials.

  5. Sep 10

    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 already dysfunctional economy faces relentless pressure — with no victory to rally around and no economic rescue on the horizon. On the latest episode of The Iran Breakdown, host Mark Dubowitz is joined by FDD’s Miad Maleki, a former senior Treasury sanctions official, to explain why the regime’s greatest threat may no longer come from American bombers or Israeli jets, but from an economic crisis it cannot bomb, repress, or print its way out of.

  6. Aug 20

    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 the region’s next great revisionist power? Mark Dubowitz is joined by two Turkey and Middle East experts: Steven A. Cook, the Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and Jonathan Schanzer, executive director at FDD. They discuss Erdogan’s ambitions, Turkey’s growing confrontation with Israel in Syria, Ankara’s support for Hamas, its complicated relationship with Tehran, its future in NATO—and whether Turkey could eventually pursue nuclear weapons. The central question: As Iran declines, is Turkey the next big Islamist threat?

  7. Aug 18

    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 and America’s growing energy dominance. Rich leads FDD’s Energy and National Security Program and served in the second Trump administration, where he helped establish the White House National Energy Dominance Council. During the first Trump administration, he served at the White House as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction. A former Navy intelligence officer with experience on the Joint Staff and in Afghanistan, Rich also spent years on Capitol Hill, where he was a lead architect of sanctions against Iran. Iran sanctioned him in 2020 Mark and Rich examine the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz, the resilience and the risks in global energy markets, emerging workarounds to bypass the strait, America’s expanding energy power and China’s role in the equation. It’s a conversation about more than barrels and pipelines—it’s about energy, economics and military power, and the central question: Does Iran have Trump over a barrel—or is it the other way around? Relevant article: Tehran is losing its grip on Hormuz, and with it all its leverage

  8. Aug 14

    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 thought, Frantz Fanon’s vision of anticolonial struggle and redemptive violence—channeled through Iranian intellectual Ali Shariati—and a revolutionary Shia theology of martyrdom, resistance, and struggle against oppression. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder and first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, forged these currents into a revolutionary state whose legitimacy rests not simply on governing Iran, but on resisting an international order it considers fundamentally unjust. That helps explain the regime’s remarkable ability to turn military defeats, economic devastation, and mass suffering into narratives of resistance, sacrifice, and even victory. Haviv Rettig Gur—Middle East analyst at The Free Press, and host of Ask Haviv Anything—joins Mark Dubowitz on The Iran Breakdown to unpack the ideological DNA of the Islamic Republic, why it has endured, and what its enemies still misunderstand about the regime they are fighting.

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Welcome to The Iran Breakdown. Hosted by Mark Dubowitz, this show from FDD is here to guide you through one of the most critical geopolitical and human rights challenges facing the world today. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been a central player in global headlines for decades: its pursuit of nuclear weapons, development of a massive missile and drove arsenal, funding of terror groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and others; its oppression of the Iranian people; and its growing alliances with global power states like China, Russia, and North Korea. But beneath the headlines lies a deeper story: a regime that is losing legitimacy, battered nuclear and missile programs, a crumbling economy, a restless population hungry for freedom, and a global community with many conflicting ideas about how to respond. But a regime still standing and dangerous. And that’s what we’ll cover on The Iran Breakdown.

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