How did a Yemeni militia become one of Tehran's most powerful proxies? @osto.bsky.social and @thomasjuneau.bsky.social analyze the rise of the Houthis on the latest episode of The Iran Reckoning. (Members Only)
Listen here: warontherocks.com/ep...
03.11.2025 20:20 — 👍 4 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
It was great to talk Iran-Houthi ties - background, their evolution more recently, the consequences of growing Houthi power - with Afshon @osto.bsky.social:
03.11.2025 21:26 — 👍 12 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
"Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has become more than a military force. In the latest episode of The Iran Reckoning, Afshon (@osto.bsky.social) and Yeganeh Torbati (@yjtorbati.bsky.social) unpack their growing role in the economy.
Listen here: warontherocks.com/ep..."
19.08.2025 11:30 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
New episode of the pod just dropped. Really enjoyed this conversation with Gregory Brew. Lucid and fascinating discussion on oil, politics, and the shadowy art of trade under sanctions
05.08.2025 18:31 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Look what just arrived! By some of the absolute best in their fields: Stéphane Lacroix, @musaalgharbi.bsky.social and @osto.bsky.social
04.08.2025 19:31 — 👍 3 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
Behind the warheads — Afshon Ostovar (@osto.bsky.social) and Fabian Hinz explore how politics, partnerships, and pressure shaped Iran’s missile ambitions.
Listen here: warontherocks.com/ep...
21.07.2025 15:00 — 👍 0 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Iran’s forever crisis is far from over
As a result of Israeli and American attacks, the Islamic Republic’s problems have only intensified. Its next steps could prove definitive for both the country and its ruling establishment.
Where does Iran go after the 12-day war? Can it restore deterrence? How much is it willing to risk in regaining some of its lost power & influence? Its options are limited and will test its commitment to self-reliance. My latest in @engelsbergideas.bsky.social
17.07.2025 19:35 — 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
Iran’s forever crisis is far from over
As a result of Israeli and American attacks, the Islamic Republic’s problems have only intensified. Its next steps could prove definitive for both the country and its ruling establishment.
Where does Iran go after the 12-day war? Can it restore deterrence? How much is it willing to risk in regaining some of its lost power & influence? Its options are limited and will test its commitment to self-reliance. My latest in @engelsbergideas.bsky.social
17.07.2025 19:35 — 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
What Iran Wants
Historian and podcaster Afshon Ostovar joins Faisal Al Yafai to discuss the ideology and strategy of Iran.
Had an engaging, wide-ranging conversation with @faisalalyafai.bsky.social on Iran—what motivates its politics, what complicates its politics, and why it can be both a joy and a misery to cover. Many thanks to @newlinesmag.bsky.social for putting it together
newlinesmag.com/podcast/what...
11.07.2025 20:04 — 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
For you, Brian, I’ll make sure of it.
24.06.2025 03:53 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
There’ll be loads. War won’t make this podcast.
24.06.2025 03:52 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
We’re doing a thing
23.06.2025 19:51 — 👍 12 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 0
How Iran Lost
Tehran’s hard-liners squandered decades of strategic capital and undermined deterrence.
Excellent analysis by @osto.bsky.social: “Ali Khamenei and the IRGC have lost; the regional status quo they established is finished.”
www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/...
19.06.2025 14:49 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
How Iran Lost
Tehran’s hard-liners squandered decades of strategic capital and undermined deterrence.
The regional status quo that Iran established over the past three decades is finished—and it is now clear that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have lost their decades-long conflict with Israel, argues @osto.bsky.social.
18.06.2025 19:14 — 👍 28 🔁 13 💬 2 📌 1
How Iran Lost
Tehran’s hard-liners squandered decades of strategic capital and undermined deterrence.
Ali Khamenei and the IRGC have lost; the regional status quo they established is finished. — My latest in @foreignaffairs.com
18.06.2025 14:56 — 👍 40 🔁 14 💬 3 📌 0
APNewsAlert: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israeli strikes on #Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others, a human rights group says.
19.06.2025 01:43 — 👍 10 🔁 9 💬 2 📌 0
How Iran Lost
Tehran’s hard-liners squandered decades of strategic capital and undermined deterrence.
Ali Khamenei and the IRGC have lost; the regional status quo they established is finished. — My latest in @foreignaffairs.com
18.06.2025 14:56 — 👍 40 🔁 14 💬 3 📌 0
Israel’s Attacks Leave Iran’s Supreme Leader Exposed—With No Good Options
Tehran’s bruising fight with Israel has left its military weakened and unable to respond in kind to Israeli attacks
The intelligence apparatus that has kept Khamenei in power for 4 decades is crumbling around him. He will spend the autumn of his life fighting to salvage the Islamic Republic.
"The ship that he stewarded has run aground,” @osto.bsky.social told me
My story:
www.wsj.com/world/middle... #iran
14.06.2025 08:07 — 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
@osto.bsky.social: "It’s a huge blow. It’s eviscerated a brain trust that has led Iran’s strategy for the last 20 years...It’s like taking out the bulk of your national security council...Khamenei is much more alone now than he was yesterday."
13.06.2025 21:24 — 👍 6 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
Iran’s Military Just Lost Its ‘Brain Trust’
Israeli strikes killed several of Iran’s top military commanders.
Iran lost several top military commanders to Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours. To get a better sense of what these losses mean for Iran and the region, I spoke with @osto.bsky.social, a leading expert on Iran's military who wrote a book on the IRGC's history. foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/13/i...
13.06.2025 21:21 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Very cool! Congratulations, Sam!
04.04.2025 04:23 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Books of the Year 2024
Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas highlight the books they’ve enjoyed in 2024.
Very honored to see Wars of Ambition make this list and be among such illustrious company
20.12.2024 17:15 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
There is much that is unclear about Iran’s decisions over the last week. Iran has abandoned the revolution’s life’s work without a fight. There is little chance that such an extreme external collapse occured without severe turmoil inside the regime. This story is far from over.
08.12.2024 16:54 — 👍 28 🔁 7 💬 3 📌 0
Historian & journalist exploring empires past and present. Commissioning Editor at Engelsberg Ideas | Email: jack@engelsbergideas.com
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Lester Bangs, but for like the ocean.
*stab, look, stab, stab*
Research Associate at CNS | Fellow at FPRI | MIIS NPTS '24 | RTs/views my own etc. Also @sam_lair on Twitter
National security, technology, California. Cinder co-founder, led DOI at FB, created Palantir disaster relief, Research Director at CTC @ West Point.
Associate Professor of International Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. Books on liberalism, democracy, human rights, Iran, and US-Iran relations. Working on a book on enmity in politics. Co-Editor, Int'l Studies Review.
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Assoc. prof. at Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, Writing a book on Iran's Revolutionary Guards
The Arab Gulf States Institute is an independent, nonprofit institution providing expert research and analysis of the Gulf Arab states.
https://agsi.org/
A DC-based think tank, focused on US grand strategy and great power competition, with a strong emphasis on Eurasia, the defense industrial base, alliances, and maritime power.
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Public Service Fellow at Lawfare • Ex Pentagon & State Department • Recovering academic • Author of No Conquest, No Defeat (Oxford University Press) & co-author of Triple Axis: Iran’s Relations with Russia and China (Bloomsbury)
Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Former career diplomat. RPCV Morocco. Re-posts ≠ endorsements.
https://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/members-1/gray/gordon
Proxy War/Middle East Scholar, main focus on Iranian proxy warfare and foreign policy
PhD @University of Trento
Political anthropologist- critically studies of security, policy experts, think tanks, gender, & US Foreign Policy in the Middle East (Iran and Egypt)
https://negarsrazavi.com/
