Dr. Hamidreza Azizi is a Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. He also serves as a Nonresident Fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs in Doha and as an associate researcher at Clingendael – the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. Azizi holds a Ph.D. in Regional Studies from the University of Tehran and has lectured at several Iranian universities, including the University of Tehran (2016–2018) and Shahid Beheshti University (2016–2020). His research focuses on security and geopolitical issues in the Middle East and Central Eurasia, Iran’s foreign and security policy, and Iran-Russia relations. Azizi’s research has been widely published in academic journals such as Mediterranean Politics, the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, and Small Wars & Insurgencies, and his analyses have been featured by leading think tanks and media outlets, including TIME Magazine, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest. He also appears frequently as a commentator on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera, among others. Azizi is the author of The Axis of Resistance: Iran, Israel, and the Struggle for the Middle East, forthcoming with Polity in May 2026.
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Episode 469
Hamidreza Azizi
America’s Gamble: Regime Change, Retreat, or State Collapse in Iran | Hamidreza Azizi
Dr. Hamidreza Azizi is a Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. He also serves as a Nonresident Fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs in Doha and as an associate researcher at Clingendael – the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. Azizi holds a Ph.D. in Regional Studies from the University of Tehran and has lectured at several Iranian universities, including the University of Tehran (2016–2018) and Shahid Beheshti University (2016–2020). His research focuses on security and geopolitical issues in the Middle East and Central Eurasia, Iran’s foreign and security policy, and Iran-Russia relations. Azizi’s research has been widely published in academic journals such as Mediterranean Politics, the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, and Small Wars & Insurgencies, and his analyses have been featured by leading think tanks and media outlets, including TIME Magazine, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest. He also appears frequently as a commentator on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera, among others. Azizi is the author of The Axis of Resistance: Iran, Israel, and the Struggle for the Middle East, forthcoming with Polity in May 2026.
In Episode 469 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Hamidreza Azizi — Iranian scholar, visiting fellow at the German Institute for International Security Affairs, nonresident fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, and author of the forthcoming The Axis of Resistance: Iran, Israel, and the Struggle for the Middle East — about how the US and Israeli military campaign against Iran has evolved over its first three weeks, and what the conflict’s trajectory reveals about the competing strategic objectives driving it.
The conversation opens with an assessment of how the war has unfolded since its start, examining where US and Israeli objectives align, where they diverge, and what those divergences mean for the conflict’s direction. Azizi and Kofinas discuss the significance of the targeted killing of Ali Larijani — secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council — as part of a broader campaign to decapitate the Islamic Republic’s leadership structure, and what the systematic elimination of senior Iranian officials means for Tehran’s ability to manage both the military and political dimensions of the war simultaneously.
The conversation then turns to the nuclear question — specifically whether the war has made a nuclear-armed Iran more likely rather than less — before examining the divergent responses of the Gulf states and the key variables Azizi believes are most important for understanding where this conflict goes from here.
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Dr. Hamidreza Azizi is a Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. He also serves as a Nonresident Fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs in Doha and as an associate researcher at Clingendael – the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. Azizi holds a Ph.D. in Regional Studies from the University of Tehran and has lectured at several Iranian universities, including the University of Tehran (2016–2018) and Shahid Beheshti University (2016–2020). His research focuses on security and geopolitical issues in the Middle East and Central Eurasia, Iran’s foreign and security policy, and Iran-Russia relations.
Azizi’s research has been widely published in academic journals such as Mediterranean Politics, the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, and Small Wars & Insurgencies, and his analyses have been featured by leading think tanks and media outlets, including TIME Magazine, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest. He also appears frequently as a commentator on CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera, among others.
Azizi is the author of The Axis of Resistance: Iran, Israel, and the Struggle for the Middle East, forthcoming with Polity in May 2026.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
