About this episode

Cliff May interviews Mark Dubowitz about the beliefs and strategies of the Islamic Republic and its impact on the U.S. since 1979.

We’re marking one year of The Iran Breakdown by bringing you a special conversation from our sister FDD podcast. In this episode of Foreign Podicy , host Cliff May sits down with Mark Dubowitz to unpack a question at the core of this show: what the Islamic Republic actually believes — and how it has waged war on the United States and its allies since 1979. It’s a conversation about ideology, strategy, and a threat too often misunderstood. If you want to understand the regime in order to make sense of the war, start here.

People in this episode

Host: Cliff May

Guest: Mark Dubowitz

Topics covered

• Islamic Republic
• U.S. foreign policy
• ideology
• strategy
• war
• threat assessment

Keywords

• Islamic Republic
• Mark Dubowitz
• Cliff May
• U.S. allies
• foreign policy
• war
• ideology
• strategy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FDD, Islamic Republic

More episodes of The Iran Breakdown with Mark Dubowitz

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• Operation Economic Fury (feat. Miad Maleki and Rich Goldberg) · April 16, 2026 · 59 min
• Regime Revisionism: Tehran's War Before the Iran War (feat. Jay Solomon & Negar Mojtahedi) · April 9, 2026 · 55 min
• Iran's Global Game of Drones (& How To Stockpile While Sanctioned) (feat. Kerri Bitsoff) · April 2, 2026 · 32 min
• War of the Words in Iran (feat. Ali Ansari) · March 26, 2026 · 46 min
• From Tehran to Taipei: How the Iran War Reshapes China’s Taiwan Calculus (feat. Matt Pottinger) · March 26, 2026 · 44 min

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