FDD's Foreign Podicy

Mike Waltz is a warrior and a diplomat. In 2014, he wrote a fascinating book called “Warrior Diplomat: A Green Beret’s Battles from Washington to Afghanistan.” In 2015, he was a non-resident senior fellow at FDD. In 2018, he became the first Green Beret elected to Congress, taking the seat that had belonged to the now-Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. In the current session of Congress, Rep. Walt...

The United States and Israel  conducted  the Juniper Oak 23 multi-domain military exercise in late January. The Pentagon calls it the “largest” and “most significant” bilateral U.S.-Israel exercise in history. This exercise comes as the Islamic Republic of Iran deepens its relationship with China and Russia, continues to export terrorism, inches toward a nuclear weapon, and expands the missile mea...

China, Russia, Iran, North Korea — not to mention the persistent threat from terrorist organizations. The United States confronts an extraordinary array of threats, with many of our adversaries working together more closely than ever. So, how should we respond? What kind of military do we need? And how can we ensure the United States continues to possess the most formidable air force in the world?...

During the Cold War, one of the few issues on which the United States and the Soviet Union agreed, was that other states should not have nuclear weapons. The likelihood that one of them would use those weapons – or transfer them to a regime or group that would was too great. This was called the principle of non-proliferation. It was regarded as an established norm of international behavior, expres...

Jonathan Conricus was born in Jerusalem but grew up in Sweden. His family returned to Israel when he was 13 years old. A few years later he joined the Israeli Defense Forces, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and serving as the IDF’s international spokesman. He joins  Foreign Podicy host and FDD founder and president Cliff May to discuss his life, career, what it was like dealing...

Not that long ago, Venezuela was among the freest and richest nations in Latin America. But in 1999, Hugo Chavez became president and introduced his brand of socialism known as Chavism. Venezuela’s liberties and prosperity were quickly eroded. Chavez died in 2013. Under his successor, Nicolas Maduro, who had been his right-hand man, Venezuela has continued to decline. In 2019, the U.S. supported a...

The Muslim Brotherhood has been around for close to a century but most people – certainly most Americans and Europeans – know very little about it. Is it reformist and non-violent as its spokesmen and defenders claim? Or is it – as Cynthia Farahat argues in a new book – the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization? The book is titled: The Secret Apparatus: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Industry of...

The Uyghurs are a Turkic Muslim people who live in a Central Asian land usually called Xinjiang. They have been – and are being – brutally oppressed by China’s Communist rulers. There can be no debate about that. Nury Turkel was born in a detention center in Xinjiang. As a young adult, he made his way to America, where he became the first Uyghur to earn a law degree at an American university. Toda...

Many Americans recognize the threat emanating from the People’s Republic of China. But some may assume that Beijing’s malign activities are relegated to the Indo-Pacific. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Beijing is increasingly active in Latin America — right here in our own hemisphere.  What are Beijing and other adversaries up to in this region? Why do these activities matter? H...

FIFA’s World Cup of Soccer is a version of the World Series, the Super Bowl, and the Stanley Cup – all rolled into one very international extravaganza. This year, the games have been hip-deep in controversies that have nothing to do with athleticism. Declan Hill is an is an associate professor of investigations at the University of New Haven, and the head of its Sports Integrity Center. He is the...

Israel is the world’s only Jewish-majority state and the only surviving and thriving Jewish community that remains in the Middle East. Despite that — or, maybe, because of that — Israel has many enemies.  You may think you know how this unique nation-state was born, but history, like science, is never settled.  Jeffrey Herf, a Distinguished University Professor of Modern European History at the Un...

Richard Landes is an historian and author who specializes in  medieval millennial thinking . His interests include media manipulation intended to defame, demonize, and de-legitimize the Jewish state. He joins host Cliff May to discuss his new book: "Can The Whole World Be Wrong? Lethal Journalism, Antisemitism, and Global Jihad.”

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Wagner Group? They’re Russian mercenaries. They claim they’re not taking orders from Vladimir Putin, but you should be skeptical. At this moment, the Wagner Group is fighting on Putin’s side in Ukraine — but not as effectively as many expected. Less well known is the Mozart Group, which consists mostly of special operations soldiers from 11 countries who are training, a...

Refusing to be silenced, even by brutal crackdowns, the freedom-seeking people of Iran have now surpassed six weeks of nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman murdered by the so-called "morality" police. Filling in for host Cliff May, FDD Senior Fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht is joined by Mariam Memarsadeghi — founder of Tavaana and the Cyrus Forum — to discuss why this ro...

Americans must be prepared to defend themselves from hostile armies, navies, air forces – and, not least, soldiers in cyberspace. With that in mind, in 2019, Congress created the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, the CSC. Its mission: “to develop a strategic approach to defending the United States in cyberspace against cyber-attacks of significant consequences.” The CSC operated successfully for two...

North Korea is again launching missiles, Iran continues inching towards a nuclear weapons capability, Russia is escalating its aggression in Ukraine, and China is sprinting to field a military capable of invading Taiwan and defeating any effort by Washington to intervene. Considering these extraordinary threats, what kind of Air Force does the United States have — and what kind of Air Force does i...

The Inter-American Development Bank, the IDB, says its mission is to “improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean,” support countries “working to reduce poverty and inequality,” and “achieve development in a sustainable, climate-friendly way.” For the past two years, for the first time in its 62-year history, the IDB has had an American president: Mauricio Claver-Carone. His goals have includ...

Since 1989, Ali Khamenei has been the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has outlasted and outplayed everyone else within the first revolutionary generation. His men now control all the critical institutions in the state. He out-negotiated the United States and western Europe in nuclear talks despite severe sanctions. He has pushed Iran's atomic program ever closer to a bomb. He de...

Washington and Beijing are engaged in an increasingly intense contest spanning nearly all domains of power — and the stakes could not be higher. It’s a competition between the world’s leading constitutional democracy and the world’s leading authoritarian power. While this contest between the U.S. and China is a global one, it’s most acute in Taiwan where the free people there are confronting the v...

Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington. He’s an expert on regional security in Russia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. He’s consulted for the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, and for the intelligence community. He’s the author of quite a few books, most recently:  Wars of Ideas :  Theology, Interpretation and Power in the Muslim World . H...

Host Cliff May says  Wall Street Journal ‘s Michael Gordon is, “without a doubt, one of the best reporters I’ve ever known — and I’ve known many reporters over many years.” Decades ago, they sat in the same bullpen at  The New York Times’  Washington bureau, where Cliff says Michael, “covered defense, national security, and international affairs better than anyone else in town.” Michael has report...

One year ago, the U.S. military, under orders from the White House, allowed the Taliban to re-take control of Afghanistan. The withdrawal was poorly planned. The evacuation of Americans and American allies was chaotic and, for some — including 13 American service members — fatal. One year later, what’s the status of Afghanistan? What’s the status of the Taliban’s ally, al Qaeda? What lessons have...

Israel’s latest armed conflict was with a group that calls itself Islamic Jihad, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ. It’s supported, armed, and trained by the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran. To learn more about this American-designated terrorist organization, how badly it was set back by the missiles of August, and what Iran’s rulers might do to build it back better, host  Cliff May  is...

The United States has vital economic and national security interests in deterring aggression and maintaining peace and security in Europe. But almost six months ago on February 24, a clearly undeterred Vladimir Putin launched the largest invasion on the European continent since WWII. As the Ukrainian people continue the fight to defend their country, the war grinds on with no end in sight. Meanwhi...

Ayman al Zawahiri, emir of Al Qaeda, is no more. He was reportedly on the balcony of what he thought was a “safe house” in one of Kabul’s more upscale neighborhoods when two missiles fired by the CIA from a Hellfire drone ended his life — almost 21 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and almost one year after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and capitulation to the...