FDD's Foreign Podicy

The war that Yahya Sinwar launched on Oct. 7, 2023 was meant to profoundly restructure the Middle East. And that is happening – although not in the way the late Hamas leader envisioned. It’s not easy to discern the emerging new realities; to understand the rivalries among the many jihadi groups and leaders, Sunni and Shia; the shifting threats to Israelis, Kurds, Druze, Christians, and those Arabs...

Watch this episode on YouTube. As President Trump returns to the White House, he has no more important task than defense of the homeland and ensuring “peace through strength,” because U.S. national security is threatened by the Axis of Aggressors in Beijing, Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang and their Star Wars cantina of terrorist group friends.  How should Trump prioritize? And what should he do? Ho...

A few facts central to any discussion of a deal between Israel and Hamas: On Oct. 6, 2023. Gaza was not occupied. No Israelis lived there. No Israeli soldiers patrolled there. Gaza was not an open-air prison. It had schools, malls, libraries, hospitals, restaurants, sandy beaches. Hamas initiated a war on Oct. 7, 2023 by staging the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas could have brough...

“Artificial intelligence is the future… Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.” — Vladimir Putin The Russian president-for-life and neo-tzar waging a terrible war of conquest against Ukraine is evil but he’s not stupid, certainly not when it comes to artificial intelligence. Americans don’t want to rule the world. But neither do most of us want the world to b...

Just hours into the New Year, we were reminded that the Jihad against the West is not over. It’s not even taking a winter break. A man inspired by the Islamic State drove a pickup truck into a crowd in the French Quarter of New Orleans, murdering at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Hours later in New York City, demonstrators chanted: “There is only one solution – intifada revolution!” and...

What does regime change in Syria change? The overthrow of longtime, mass-murdering dictator Bashar al-Assad is a good thing. But those who did the overthrowing? Not good. The most important rebel group involved in this revolution is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, better known as HTS. It has roots in both al Qaeda and the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). Its leader’s nom de guerre is Abu Mohammad al-Jola...

It seems a favorite pastime of leaders in Washington is telling us — Americans — what we believe and what we want. Such assertions by politicians are sometimes true, but they inevitably reflect the policy the politician is attempting to promulgate.   So what do Americans actually believe when it comes to key defense and foreign policy issues? We don’t have to guess, thanks to the Reagan National D...

Another day, another blood libel against the Jewish state. What’s new but certainly not surprising is that Amnesty International (a lavishly well-funded organization and one that has long been viciously anti-Israel) has published a report accusing Israelis of genocide in Gaza. What evidence do they have? They don’t need evidence. Why bother when they knew from the get-go what their verdict would b...

Last week, President Biden finally (belatedly) allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike military targets in Russia. This made Vladimir Putin very angry. Some argue that we should be careful not to anger or provoke Putin and that if he issues threats, then we had better back down. But such weakness only emboldens Putin and his axis of aggressors in Tehran, Beijing, and Pyo...

The two most recent attacks on Israel did not take place in the Middle East. The first was in Turtle Bay at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The second was in The Hague where the International Criminal Court is located — and about 40 miles from Amsterdam where Israeli soccer fans were violently assaulted earlier this month. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister...

President Trump – now also President-elect Trump – has named the team he wants to advise him on foreign policy and national security. How will they fare in facing challenges like the Islamic Republic of Iran's war on Israel (and America), Russia's war against Ukraine, and the threat from China’s Communist rulers? Host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleague Richard Goldberg to discuss.

45 years ago this month, followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini seized the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage. Last weekend, regime supporters in Tehran celebrated that blatant violation of the most basic international law by rallying outside what used to be the embassy building.  Over the decades since, the threats posed by the regime that came to power, the misleadingly named...

FDD’s RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery just returned from Ukraine where he was on a mission to support and train the Ukrainian general staff in planning and executing integrated joint operations and, secondarily, to get a prioritized assessment of what the Ukrainians need to retain their independence, to prevent being re-colonized by Russia, to defend their homes and families. He joins host Cliff May t...

On Oct. 8, 2023, one day after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel and carried out the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust, Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon began firing missiles at Israel, and the attacks have continued ever since. Last month, Israelis defended themselves against Hezbollah in new ways, including by exploding thousands of pagers worn on the belts of Hezbollah membe...

Yahya Sinwar is dead. He was the leader of Hamas, the architect of the October 7 attack on Israel — the largest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. He has the blood of many Americans on his hands, too, and was designated as a terrorist by the U.S.
 For Israel, this is a significant battle won in a long and multi-front war. What’s next? Host Cliff May discusses with his FDD colleagues Ma...

Gen. H.R. McMaster has written a memoir about his action-packed 13 months serving as national security advisor to the 45th president of the United States.  It’s titled “At War With Ourselves,” and it focuses on the widening divisions among Americans — divisions not just between the major political parties but very much within them. H.R. is an historian as well as a soldier, and his mission, in wri...

America and other free nations are threatened by enemies – an axis of tyrants, of aggressors, of authoritarians, of revanchists – all those terms are apt. But the response of Western leaders continues to be woefully inadequate. The most imminently endangered democratic societies: Ukraine and Israel. Host Cliff May discusses with Bernard Henri-Lévy and Oleksandra Matviichuk .

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and conducted the largest pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust. The next day, Hezbollah began to rain missiles from southern Lebanon on Israel’s northern communities. Officials at the UN, other transnational organizations, various non-governmental organizations, and media platforms — AKA the “international community” — has responded to this Iran-...

The theocrats in Tehran have surrounded Israel with proxies — a “ring of fire,” as it’s being called. The regime’s nuclear weapons development program has made progress, too. And so has its development of the missiles that could deliver these nuclear weapons to targets anywhere in the world. Plus: the regime has made common cause with Communist China, neo-imperialist Russia, and the dynastic dicta...

Twenty-three years ago, al Qaeda terrorists hijacked passenger jets to use as missiles and crash two into the World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon. United Airlines Flight 93 – thanks to brave passengers onboard – crashed into an open field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. These attacks came as a shock and a surprise. But they shouldn’t have — particularly to the American...

General Randy A. George is the 41st Army Chief of Staff, making him a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest ranking officer in the U.S. Army. He enlisted in the Army decades ago, has commanded at all levels, and deployed to war multiple times. What are America’s adversaries up to, and what lessons can be drawn from the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East? How is the character of...

Before Matt Pottinger was a reporter in China, he served as a U.S. Marine, deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He then spent four years in senior roles on the White House National Security Council, including as senior director for Asia, and deputy national security advisor. Now, he’s a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and he’s Chairman of FDD’s China Program. And he’s the...

Taiwan is a vibrant democracy in the western Pacific just east of Communist China where Xi Jinping, the most powerful Chinese ruler since Mao Zedong, is the decider. His intentions toward Taiwan are imperialist and predatory. But it’s not just Taiwan that is in his crosshairs — he also seeks to displace the United States as the preeminent global power. An FDD delegation led by RADM (Ret.) Mark Mon...

Growing up a religious Muslim in Saudi Arabia, Loay Ahmed Alshareef believed that Jews descended from pigs and apes and Israelis lived on stolen land. Later in his twenties, he went to study abroad in France where his homestay family turned out to be… Jewish. Despite initially contacting his school to be moved, he stayed put. Eventually his views evolved and he became a “proud Muslim Zionist.” Loa...