Though its capabilities remain more limited than those of Russia or China, Iran is becoming a significant authoritarian actor challenging democracy in the United States and Europe. Through information manipulation, malign finance, and cyberattacks, Tehran seeks to weaken the United States and like-minded democracies to undermine their efforts at democratization beyond their borders. Find ASD’s work on Iran on this page.
Hamilton Toplines: September 5-11, 2020
Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government and state media accounts and outlets covered well-trodden ground last week, with each country returning to familiar topics or themes. For the third straight week, Russian government officials and state media [...]
Hamilton Toplines: August 29-September 4, 2020
As with most major dates in World War II, Russian diplomatic and government accounts last week put out a spate of messaging marking the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 and, more significantly, the recently changed date Russia recognizes [...]
Hamilton Analysis: A Tale of Two Protest Movements: Russian, Iranian, and Chinese Coverage of Protests in Belarus vs. the United States
Overview On August 9, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko declared a landslide victory in an election widely regarded to be neither free nor fair, sparking widespread protests across the country. Since that time, Russian, Chinese, and Iranian [...]
Hamilton Toplines: August 21-27, 2020
The major through-line in messaging from Russia, China, and Iran last week was a focus on police brutality, racial justice protests, and violence and unrest in the United States, following a pattern established earlier this year in their respective [...]
Hamilton Toplines: August 15-21, 2020
Major news events covered last week by the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian networks monitored on the Hamilton dashboard included the Democratic National Convention, past and present geopolitical developments in the Middle East, the alleged poisoning o [...]
Hamilton Toplines: August 8-14, 2020
Iranian, Russian, and Chinese state media and government accounts focused on an array of major developments last week. Iranian accounts continued to cover the aftermath of the Beirut explosion—including continued accusations of U.S. and Israeli invo [...]
Hamilton Toplines: August 1-7, 2020
Heavy coverage of the explosion in Beirut was substantial enough to break through the coronavirus news cycle, reflected in the fact that #Beirut was the third most-used hashtag by Russian, Iranian, and Chinese state media and government accounts las [...]
Five Authoritarian Pandemic Messaging Frames and How to Respond
Summary As the coronavirus pandemic has spread around the world, authoritarian actors have engaged in robust information-manipulation campaigns. China—where the virus originated and spread due to the government’s initial cover up and mismanagement [...]
Ariane Tabatabai on the Spread of Conspiracy Theories to Iran in Foreign Policy
Restart, a fringe Iranian dissident group, shows how conspiracy spreads—and what that means for U.S. politics, Middle East Fellow Ariane Tabatai writes in Foreign Policy. QAnon entered the mainstream U.S. political lingo in 2017, when its followers [...]
Hamilton Weekly Report: July 4-July 10, 2020
Overview The United States and its allies were, once again, the primary targets of negative messaging from Russia, China, and Iran’s diplomats and state media last week. Kremlin-funded media hammered the Baltic states for a second straight week afte [...]
Hamilton Weekly Report: June 27-July 3, 2020
Overview Besides the ubiquitous coverage of the coronavirus, Russia, China, and Iran’s state media and government messengers last week hit on familiar themes for each of their respective countries. For Russia, that meant elevating claims of “Russoph [...]
Ariane Tabatabai on How Israel’s Annexation of the West Bank Would be a Gift to Iran in Foreign Policy
Beleaguered by regional tensions, the coronavirus pandemic, and economic woes, Tehran could use anti-Israel sentiment to restore its reputation, ASD Middle East Fellow Ariane Tabatabai and Eurasia Group Analyst Henry Rome argue in Foreign Policy. [...]