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: October 10-16, 2020
The New York Post’s publication of salacious and unverified personal materials from a laptop allegedly owned by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, was covered extensively by Russian state media, which focused both on the “explosive” contents of the story, as [...]
Is the Trump Administration’s Maximum Pressure Campaign against Iran Working?
Middle East Fellow Ariane Tabatabai moderated a GMF Face Off debate, where participants answered the question, "Is the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign against Iran working?" In a twist, participants Richard Nephew and Mark Dubowitz [...]
Hamilton Toplines: October 3-9, 2020
Last week, Russian and Iranian diplomatic and state media accounts and outlets primarily focused on regional issues, while Chinese accounts and outlets concentrated on U.S.-China disputes as well as President Trump’s coronavirus recovery. Russian st [...]
Debating the Debates: How Russian, Chinese, and Iranian State-Backed Media Covered the U.S. First Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates
Overview On September 29, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden sparred in the first of three (now two) presidential debates. The event, which was labelled a “debacle” and a “total disaster” by the U.S. news media, unsurprisingl [...]
Hamilton Toplines: September 26-October 2, 2020
President Trump’s positive coronavirus diagnosis was covered extensively by the Russian, Iranian, and Chinese networks monitored on Hamilton 2.0, with most of the content covering factual updates or well-wishes from diplomats and world leaders. Russ [...]
Ariane Tabatabai Discusses the U.S. Election’s Implications for Iran with the Washington Institute
Donald Trump and Joe Biden are putting forward very different ideas about U.S. policy toward Iran, which arguably makes the results of their contest very consequential for Tehran—though some in the Islamic Republic say otherwise. That raises the que [...]
Ariane Tabatabai Discusses the Iranian Playbook on “World Review”
Middle East Fellow Ariane Tabatabai joined the New Statesman's "World Review" podcast to discuss Iran's role in its region and the world, how diplomacy with the United States is likely to proceed, and the violence breaking out in Nagorno-Karabakh. R [...]
Prospects for European and U.S. Policy toward Iran
This policy paper was co-authored with Edgar P. Tam, visiting senior fellow at the Paris Office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Please click the link at the right to view the full paper. President Donald Trump’s views on Iran hav [...]
Hamilton Toplines: September 12-18, 2020
Last week, Russian state media and diplomats continued to emphasize the safety of and demand for the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, as well as developments around a competing Russian vaccine created by the Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Bi [...]
Josh Rudolph on the Rise of Foreign Funds that Distort Western Politics in the Financial Times
Fellow for Malign Finance Josh Rudolph discusses how the rise of foreign funding distorts politics in the West, drawing on our recently released paper Covert Foreign Money: Financial Loopholes Exploited by Authoritarians to Fund Political Interferen [...]
Introductory Video: Iran’s Authoritarian Playbook
ASD Middle East Fellow Ariane Tabatabai gives readers a short introduction to her recently released report Iran's Authoritarian Playbook: The Tactics, Doctrine, and Objectives behind Iran’s Influence Operations. In one of the first comprehensive di [...]
Iran’s Authoritarian Playbook: The Tactics, Doctrine, and Objectives behind Iran’s Influence Operations
Introduction According to a 2013 indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice, hackers backed by a foreign power gained access to the controls of the Bowman Avenue Dam, a small dam in the New York City suburb of Rye, New York. Cyberattacks on inf [...]