Podcast
The Iran Breakdown with Mark Dubowitz
Hosted by FDD · EN
Welcome to the Iran Breakdown. Hosted by Mark Dubowitz, this miniseries 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, funding of terror groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and others; its oppression of its own people, and its growing alliances with global power states like China, Russia, North Korea. But beneath the headlines lies a deeper story, story of a regime that is losing legitimacy, a restless population, hungry for freedom, and a global community with many conflicting ideas about how to respond. And that's what we'll cover in 10 episodes of The Iran Breakdown.
22episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Iran Deal - What Trump Got, What Iran Got, and What Comes Next (feat. Richard Goldberg)
May 2601:00:09Tap to summarizeA 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 United States actually get? What did the Islamic Republic walk away with? And does this agreement close the door on Iran's path to a nuclear weapon — or just delay it? Richard Goldberg — FDD's Senior Director for Energy and National Security, former White House NSC Director for Countering Iranian WMD, and one of the architects of maximum pressure — joins Mark Dubowitz to break down the deal, assess the terms, and ask the question that will define its legacy: vice grip or open door?
Transcribe →The Iran Ceasefire Didn't End the Battle for Hormuz (feat. Aaron MacLean)
May 1401:06:16Tap to summarizeIs 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 Iran Breakdown, FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz is joined by Aaron MacLean — CBS News national security analyst and host of the School of War podcast — to assess the military, strategic, and geopolitical stakes of the Iran war. Is the ceasefire a pause button or a vice grip? And what did Iran's Hormuz gamble reveal to Beijing, Moscow, and every member of the axis of aggressors watching closely?
Transcribe →Winning the Iran War — Whether Washington Knows It or Not
May 400:19:59Tap to summarizeIn 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 by step, he makes the case that Tehran has just suffered the most severe strategic defeat in its 47-year history — its leadership decapitated, its nuclear program gutted, its air defenses shattered, its proxies in ruins, and its economy in a death spiral with the clock running out. The only remaining question: will the ceasefire be a pause that lets the regime breathe — or the closing vice on a failing regime? Mark argues the discipline to answer that question correctly is the last thing standing between America and a durable victory.
Transcribe →The Door Tehran Kicked Open: MBS, The Bomb, and The Battle for The Gulf (feat. Bernard Haykel)
Apr 2901:00:48Tap to summarizeRiyadh 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 them. Now MBS faces the question he's long telegraphed: if Iran gets a bomb, the Kingdom follows. With IAEA inspectors locked out, is that still a signal — or active policy?Bernard Haykel, Princeton's foremost scholar of the Arabian Peninsula and author of the forthcoming book, The Realm: MBS and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia, joins Mark Dubowitz to break down what Riyadh wants, what it's willing to do, and what Washington still misunderstands about the man running the Kingdom.
Transcribe →No March on Tehran: The Military Logic of the Iran War (feat. John Spencer)
Apr 2300:52:36Tap to summarizeNo 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 it all alive.But can you break a regime by breaking the system that sustains it?Urban warfare expert John Spencer joins Mark Dubowitz to unpack the real logic of this war — from the “neurological” battlefield to the fight over Hormuz — and what victory actually looks like when there’s no surrender to sign.
Transcribe →Operation Economic Fury (feat. Miad Maleki and Rich Goldberg)
Apr 1600:59:26Tap to summarizeIran 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 tightens.This isn’t sanctions as usual. It’s economic warfare—aimed at the regime’s ability to survive.The question now: Does this force Tehran to the table… or push it toward something far more dangerous?
Transcribe →Regime Revisionism: Tehran's War Before the Iran War (feat. Jay Solomon & Negar Mojtahedi)
Apr 900:55:03Tap to summarizeBack 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. A coordinated campaign to turn a domestic uprising into a so-called CIA–Mossad plot — rewriting the story in real time and pushing that narrative deep into Western discourse.The January crackdown and the narrative battle that accompanied it aren’t isolated incidents. They set conditions for the war that followed, shaping global perception before a single American fighter jet took flight.So, was all of this just another page from the regime’s standard propaganda playbook? Or is information warfare now a core pillar of its survival?
Transcribe →Iran's Global Game of Drones (& How To Stockpile While Sanctioned) (feat. Kerri Bitsoff)
Apr 200:31:42Tap to summarizeFor years, Washington has leaned on sanctions to contain Iran’s most dangerous capabilities.Tehran’s drone and missile programs didn’t just survive under pressure, they adapted, scaled, and in many ways thrived, fueled in part by Western-made components slipping through global supply chains.The result: a procurement network that’s harder to disrupt, more resilient, and still very much intact.Now, Tehran isn’t just building for itself. It’s exporting the model — arming Russia in Ukraine, supplying proxies across the Middle East, and even laying the groundwork for drone production in places like Venezuela, putting parts of the United States within range.So the question isn’t whether sanctions work — it’s whether we’re hitting the right targets.To break all of this down, host Mark Dubowitz is joined by Kerri Bitsoff — a former senior official at the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) who has been called a ‘secret weapon’ in the fight against Iran's weapons procurement.
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Iran Protests: Day 16 | Mark's Generation Jihad interview
Jan 12Tap to summarizeIran Breakdown-ers, we're pleased to introduce you to Generation Jihad, a podcast from FDD's Long War Journal hosted by Bill Roggio.It's January 12, 2026, day 16 of the Iran protests. Bill hosts Mark on Generation Jihad to discuss whether this is the moment.Iran protest resourcesWe're tracking the Iran protests at fdd.org/iranprotests. If you're new to The Iran Breakdown, welcome. Mark's interview with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi should be your next watch. Follow FDD's Iran experts on X, like Mark, Behnam, Saeed, and Janatan...The following content is cross-postedMark Dubowitz: The regime clings to its ninth lifeAfter military defeat abroad and at home where the economy also has collapsed, the Islamic Republic is weaker than ever, and the Iranian people know it.The regime is facing a nationwide uprising unlike anything seen in decades with Iranians across class, age, and ideology back in the streets, and they’re no longer asking for reform. They’re demanding an end to the Islamic Republic itself. Meanwhile, President Trump warned that U.S. military action is on the table if the regime slaughters protesters. As we record, a brutal crackdown is underway with reports of hundreds of Iranians killed and tens of thousands arrested. Is this the moment?Bill asks FDD CEO and host Mark Dubowitz.
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Day 12 of the Iran Protests (January 8 update)
Jan 9Tap to summarizeThe strong-as-ever Iranian people are back on the streets, protesting against the weak-as-ever regime in the shadow of the 12-Day War. Recorded live on X Spaces on Thursday, January 8, 2026 as events unfolded, this episode of The Iran Breakdown brings you a real-time conversation with Mark Dubowitz, Behnam Ben Taleblu, and Janatan Sayeh as they assess what’s different about this protest wave, why fear inside Iran may be breaking, and how years of political repression, economic collapse, and environmental failure are converging into a single moment of reckoning.Iran protest resources—We're tracking the Iran protests at fdd.org/iranprotests.—If you're new to The Iran Breakdown, welcome. Mark's inaugural interview with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi should be your next listen.—Our Iran experts are on X, including Mark, Behnam, Saeed, Janatan, and others.
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