Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Mark Dubowitz is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan policy institute, where he leads projects on sanctions, nonproliferation, and countering electronic repression.

Mark is an expert on sanctions and has testified before Congress and advised the U.S. administration, Congress, and numerous foreign governments on Iran sanctions issues.

Mark is the co-author of eight studies on economic sanctions against Iran.  He also is co-chair of the Project on U.S. Middle East Nonproliferation Strategy, a nonpartisan project co-chaired by five nonproliferation and sanctions experts, which produced a 2013 report on U.S. Nonproliferation Strategy for the Changing Middle East.  

Mark has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, and The Weekly Standard, and appeared on CBS Evening News, CNN, Fox News, NPR, PBS, BBC and CBC.

Before joining FDD in 2003, Mark worked in venture capital, technology management and law. He has a masters in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and law and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto.

Mark Dubowitz is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan policy institute, where he leads projects on sanctions, nonproliferation, and countering electronic repression.

Mark is an expert on sanctions.  Mark has testified before Congress and advised the U.S. administration, Congress, and numerous foreign governments on Iran sanctions issues.

Mark is head of FDD's Iran Energy Project, which provides research and analysis on Iran energy, financial and shipping sanctions, and tracks the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran's economy. He directs FDD's Iran Human Rights Project which provides research on Iranian human rights sanctions.  He also co-leads FDD's work on Syria sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and is a founding member of the FDD Syria Working Group.  

Mark is co-chair of the Project on U.S. Middle East Nonproliferation Strategy, a nonpartisan project co-chaired by five nonproliferation and sanctions experts, which produced a 2013 report on U.S. Nonproliferation Strategy for the Changing Middle East.  

He is the co-author of eight reports on economic sanctions against Iran, including five confidential studies provided by FDD to the U.S. government on: (1) the links between the National Iranian Oil Company and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; (2) the oil market impact of sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran; (3) the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Iranian crude oil supply chain; (4) the role of the IRGC in the refined petroleum trade; and, (5) the creation of the United States as an “Iranian-Oil-Free Zone” to prohibit the importation into the U.S. of refined petroleum products derived from Iranian crude.  He also co-authored Iran's Energy Partners: Companies Requiring Investigation Under U.S. Sanctions Law (FDD Press, August 2010) and Iran's Chinese Energy Partners: Companies Eligible for Investigation Under U.S. Sanctions Law (FDD Press, September 2010).

Mark has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, and The Weekly Standard, among other publications, and appeared on CBS Evening News, CNN, Fox News, NPR, PBS, BBC and CBC.

As a former technology executive and venture capitalist, Mark also researches the role of technology in supporting anti-regime democracy movements in the Middle East.

Before joining FDD in 2003, Mark worked in venture capital, law, and as Director of International Business Development at Doubleclick (purchased by Google) and as Director of Corporate Development and General Manager, European & Asian Operations, at FloNetwork (purchased by Doubleclick). He has a masters in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, and law and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto.