Iran Watch Listen

In this episode of Iran Watch Listen, Wisconsin Project Executive Director Valerie Lincy and Senior Research Associate John Caves sat down with John Lauder, a Wisconsin Project Senior Fellow with more than three decades of experience in the U.S. intelligence community, to think through the new realities after the bombing of Iran's nuclear program and the return of U.N. sanctions. What might come next? The conversation took place on September 18. Related Resources John Caves, Valerie Lincy, and Gary Milhollin, "Hidden Among the Rubble: Iran's Post-Strike Weapon Potential," Iran Watch, August 26, 2025. "Table of Iranian Nuclear Sites and Related Facilities," Iran Watch, July 24, 2025. Valerie Lincy, "Nuclear Strikes on Iran: What We Don't Know," Iran Watch, June 24, 2025. "Iran Watch Special Newsletter: Israel Strikes Iranian Nuclear Sites," Iran Watch, June 13, 2025. John Caves, John Krzyzaniak, Valerie Lincy, "Trigger Warning: The Consequences of Snapping Back Sanctions on Iran," Iran Watch, January 31,…

In this episode of Iran Watch Listen, we sat down with Behnam Ben Taleblu and Michael Eisenstadt, experts on the strategic challenges posed by Iran. We discussed the opportunities and pitfalls facing the second Trump administration as it makes a last-ditch effort to prevent Iran's increasingly advanced nuclear program from crossing the threshold to a bomb. The conversation took place on April 22 and was hosted by Valerie Lincy, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, and John Caves, a Senior Research Associate at the Wisconsin Project. Expert Bios Behnam Ben Taleblu is senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' (FDD's) Iran Program, where he oversees FDD's work on Iran in addition to serving as a senior fellow specializing in Iranian security and political issues, including nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles and drones, sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies, and Iranian politics. Michael Eisenstadt is the Kahn Senior Fellow…

In this episode of Iran Watch Listen, we sat down with Hanna Notte and Jim Lamson, experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. We discussed the history of Iran and Russia's military relationship, how it has changed since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and areas where both countries might benefit from deeper cooperation in the future. The conversation took place on August 21 and was hosted by John Caves, a Senior Research Associate at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, and John Krzyzaniak, a Research Associate at the Wisconsin Project. Expert Bios Dr. Hanna Notte is the director of the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), and a senior non-resident associate with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Jim Lamson is a senior research associate at CNS, where he focuses on Iranian weapons, space, and military issues, and Iran's security and…

In this episode of Iran Watch Listen, we sat down with Wolf-Christian Paes, an expert on arms and maritime security who served on the U.N. Panel of Experts on Yemen from 2018 until 2023. We discussed Iran's support for the Houthi rebel group, the ways in which arms are smuggled into Yemen, and the challenges of enforcing the arms embargo imposed on the Houthis by the U.N. Security Council—as well as what that bodes for the outcome of the current crisis in the Red Sea. Expert Bio Wolf-Christian Paes is a Senior Fellow for Armed Conflict at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). From 2018 until 2023, he served as the arms expert on the U.N. Panel of Experts on Yemen, where he monitored the sanctions regime imposed by the U.N. Security Council and reported on maritime security. Prior to that, he was the Head of Advisory Services at the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies (BICC). Related Resources Wolf-Christian Paes, "Assessment of the Response to Illicit Weapons Trafficking In the…

In this episode of Iran Watch Listen, we sat down with Dr. Bruce Goodwin, an expert on nuclear weapons design and testing. We discussed the steps required to build a nuclear weapon and what is publicly known about Iran's weaponization efforts to date. The conversation took place on May 3 and was hosted by Valerie Lincy, Executive Director at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, and John Krzyzaniak, a Research Associate at the Wisconsin Project. Expert Bio Bruce Goodwin is a retired senior fellow at the Center for Global Security Research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Earlier, he was the Principal Associate Director for the nuclear weapons program at Livermore from 2001 until 2013. He has been a key player in the success of the U.S. nuclear weapons program since 1981, first at Los Alamos National Laboratory and since 1985 at Livermore. While at both Labs, he was a design physicist on five nuclear tests. Related Resources "Additive Manufacturing and Nuclear Security: Calibrating…

In this episode of Iran Watch Listen, we sat down with Dan Gettinger and Adam Rawnsley, both experts on Iranian drones and drone technology. We discussed the current state of Iran's capabilities, Iran's growing ambitions to become a drone exporter, and whether tighter sanctions and export controls could hinder its progress. The conversation took place on September 15 and was hosted by John Caves, Senior Research Associate at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, and John Krzyzaniak, a Research Associate at the Wisconsin Project. Expert Bios Dan Gettinger is the Director of Publications and Communications at the Vertical Flight Society. Before that he was the founder and co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College where he authored the Drone Databook. Adam Rawnsley is a reporter at Rolling Stone and a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His work focuses on the intersection of technology and security, and he's been doing in-depth investigations into Iranian drone…

In the fourth episode of Iran Watch Listen, we sit down with Neil Watts, who served for five years as the Maritime Expert on the United Nations Panel of Experts on North Korea. We discuss missile and arms-related cooperation between Iran and North Korea and how such collaboration has evolved over time, from the transfer of complete systems to the sharing of test data and technical expertise. Neil describes the "close working relationship" between Iran and North Korea on ballistic missile development, notably "leapfrog technologies" from North Korea that have allowed Iran to qualitatively increase its ballistic missile capabilities. Our discussion also covers sanctions evasion methods used by Iran and North Korea, including ship-to-ship transfers, transshipment, splitting shipments among multiple containers and vessels, and hiding illicit items in bulk cargo. The conversation took place on September 8 and was hosted by Valerie Lincy, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, and…

In the third episode of the Iran Watch Listen podcast, we speak with Laura Rockwood, a former senior official at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), about the authorities that the IAEA uses to conduct nuclear inspections in Iran, as well as Iran's recent decision to reduce the Agency's level of access. Background The IAEA plays a leading role in monitoring Iran's nuclear program, including through inspections of nuclear material and related facilities. The international community relies on the IAEA and its public reporting as an objective source of information about the status of Iran's nuclear program and Iran's compliance with restrictions set forth in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement placing limits on Iran's nuclear activities. However, nuclear monitoring in Iran did not begin with the JCPOA. As a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has had a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) in force for decades. These Agreements are intended to…

In the second episode of Iran Watch Listen, we speak with John Smith, the former Director of the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), about the impact of the Trump administration's Iran sanctions campaign and how Iran policy might change with the incoming Biden administration. Background OFAC administers and enforces U.S. economic and trade sanctions programs. Foreign individuals, companies, and groups that pose a threat to U.S. national security, foreign policy, and economic goals may be sanctioned for laundering money, drug trafficking, terrorist activities, human rights abuses, and contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Treasury Department, and in particular OFAC, have increasingly been called on by successive administrations and by Congress to wage economic war with respect to national security and foreign policy threats to the United States. Our Discussion We hear from John about the key role OFAC has played in U.S. efforts to counter the…

In the inaugural episode of Iran Watch Listen we discuss deceptive shipping practices used by Iran to evade U.S. sanctions and U.S. efforts to counter these practices with two experts from the U.S. State Department: Blake Pritchett, the Deputy Director of the Office of Economic Sanctions Policy, and Jen Chalmers, Chief of the Disruption Operations and Transport Team. Read more about our guests below. Background On May 14, the U.S. Departments of State and the Treasury, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, issued a Maritime Advisory listing techniques that Iranian merchant vessels use to evade economic sanctions. The United States followed this measure on June 8, when additional sanctions on Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (or IRISL) and its Chinese-based subsidiary went into effect; both companies employ many of the tactics outlined in the Advisory. On the same day, the U.S. imposed secondary sanctions on more than 100 vessels owned by or otherwise linked to IRISL. Iran continues to sell oil and…

Welcome to Iran Watch Listen, a new podcast for the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control's Iran Watch website hosted by Valerie Lincy, the Wisconsin Project's director. Iran Watch Listen will bring you in-depth interviews with experts in and out of government. We'll be talking to them about Iranian proliferation and illicit procurement plus related export control and sanctions efforts. You'll be able to listen to some of what you normally read on Iran Watch. The aim is to bring forward non-partisan, expert voices to provide you with a range of perspectives on one of the most pressing proliferation challenges of the day. Iran Watch and this podcast are published by the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a research organization in Washington, D.C. that works to prevent international trade from contributing to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.