How Trump Miscalculated in Iran
He followed his Venezuela model, not accounting for the ideological character of the regime in Tehran.
Iranian Green Movement
The final battle?
War with Iran was inevitable, but it can’t end now
Op-eds
Is the Islamic Republic Down and Out in the Levant and Beyond?
Since October 7, 2023, Iran’s theocracy has watched its entire westward foreign policy crash, disabled by an Israeli counterattack and its shockwaves.
Op-eds
Who Is Mojtaba Khamenei?
If chosen to succeed his father as Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei will seal the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ dominance over the Islamic Republic.
Op-eds
Trump’s Unexpected Opportunity
The president can help topple the Iranian regime—if he acts swiftly and decisively.
Op-eds
How the Iranian regime’s foreign proxies suppress Iranian protestors
It is no secret that the Islamic Republic has long sponsored proxy groups abroad, yet far less is known about how these same networks have been used to protect the regime at home. Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi...
Op-eds
Freedom for Iran: Learning From U.S. Support for Polish Anti-Communists in the 1980s
Memos
Using Human Rights as a Weapon Against Iran
The uprising began because of an Iranian woman’s hair. In September 2022, Iran’s morality police arrested and then killed 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. Her murder...
Op-eds
10 Iranian Jails the Regime Uses To Brutalize Political Prisoners
Iran routinely detains and imprisons citizens who publicly question the regime. The suffering of these political prisoners is immense: Inmates have reported pervasive sexual assault, beatings, sleep deprivation,...
Insights
Natural allies: Iranians reject regime’s anti-Israel policies
Once allies, Iran and Israel now face deep hostility due to the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel stance; many Iranians, frustrated with the regime’s oppression and failed policies, view Israel as a natural ally, embracing shared interests and historic bonds
Op-eds
Iran’s Slow Boil
The clerical regime in Tehran has held the streets. It remains to be seen, however, if the strategies employed to keep the ayatollahs afloat will prevail. When Mahsa Amini, a young Sunni Kurdish-Iranian girl, died on September 16 in the custody of the morality police, nationwide demonstrations erupted, often with young women and girls on the frontlines.
Op-eds
Strategy for a New Comprehensive U.S. Policy on Iran
Monographs
Iran’s Protesters Want Regime Change
America Should Lend Them a Hand
Op-eds
Waiting for Thermidor: America’s Foreign Policy Towards Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iran may be on an accelerated schedule for revolutionary decay, at least if compared to the USSR.
Op-eds
Protests in Iran Are Surging. The Biden Administration Can Help.
U.S. policy can no longer afford to be limited to seeking a new nuclear deal.
Op-eds
The Post-Post-JCPOA World
Is a nuclear Iran something Republicans must now simply accept?
Op-eds
In Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s clerics have groomed and promoted their ruthless enforcer
This month, Iran held the most boring — and most consequential — presidential election in its history. Boring because the election was rigged virtually from the start. What made it consequential is...
Op-eds
Why the Coming Iranian Elections Will Challenge the Biden Administration
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei seems inclined to promote a candidate who will quash dissent over someone who could work with the West.
Op-eds
Trump’s Iran Achievement
Among Donald Trump’s proudest achievements as president was his withdrawal of the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), his predecessor’s nuclear agreement with Iran. The...
Op-eds
The IRGC runs for high office in Tehran
It’s not every day that a former hostage-taker and a man essential to the founding of a designated terrorist organization throws his hat into the ring for president, not even in the Islamic Republic of...