FDD's Foreign Podicy

In 2005, Vladimir Putin said the fall of the Soviet Union was the “greatest political catastrophe of the 20th century.” As Sen. Mitch McConnell pointed out, that should have told us everything we needed to know about this ex-KGB lieutenant colonel. He made the remark at an event in the U.S. Senate discussing a new report on Putin’s war in Ukraine. The report was prepared by a task force of 22 foreign policy experts. The coordinator...

Once again, there is conflict and carnage in Syria. The media calls it “sectarian strife,” but that phrase may obscure more than it reveals. Islamists have been slaughtering those they deem infidels—with Syria’s Druze and Christian communities hardest hit. The U.N. and the “international community” have been useless as usual. Israel, which has a significant Druze minority of its own, has taken action to defend the Druze of Syria. N...

Woke ideology, anti‑Americanism, Islamism and antisemitism have gripped America’s elite campuses. How? Follow the money.

Researchers at the Middle East Forum have been doing exactly that, and the result is a new report that's shocking but not surprising. It’s titled: “Beachhead: Georgetown University: How Foreign and Domestic Radical Actors Captured a U.S. University.”

Host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleague Brandy Shufutinsky ...

Just as Putin launched the largest drone assault of the war, President Trump overruled an order from the Pentagon that had halted the delivery of munitions to Ukraine. And despite what pundits say, new polling says his base isn’t mad about it. Cliff May is joined by Carrie Filipetti of the Vandenberg Coalition to break down its polling data that shows most of Trump’s base back peace through strength, see Russia and Iran as serious ...

Israel and Iran are at war. To break down what’s happening and what could come next, host Cliff May is joined by Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery and Behnam Ben Taleblu.

They dissect Israel’s targeted strikes on IRGC assets, the strategic pause before a possible U.S. strike on Fordow, and why this war isn’t just Israel vs. Iran. It’s the free world vs. the axis of aggressors. And it’s about finishing the job—or risking another histori...

Host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleagues H.R. McMaster and Brad Bowman to assess the growing cooperation among adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—also know as the 'axis of aggressors.'

From the Kremlin's efforts to manipulate perceptions in the West, particularly regarding NATO, to Iran's nuclear ambitions and the geopolitical implications of its relationship with China and the continuing threat from North K...

Thirty-six years ago this week, the Chinese Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square with tanks and bullets. The death toll? Certainly in the hundreds, probably in the thousands, and deliberately hidden by the Communist Party of China.

How did that massacre reshape China’s path, and what did it mean for Beijing’s relationship with the U.S. and the West?

Host Cliff May sits down with his FDD colleague Matt Po...

Is Iran on the brink, or is the West getting played again? Filling in for host Cliff May, Behnam Ben Taleblu is joined by Andrea Stricker and Saeed Ghasseminejad to discuss Trump’s renewed demand for full nuclear dismantlement, the regime’s internal weakness, and why half-measures won’t cut it. From stalled negotiations to nationwide strikes and the case for a “strike fund,” they unpack how to confront the Islamic Republic in 2025.

President Trump’s May 19 phone call with Vladimir Putin does not appear to be two hours well-spent. According to readouts, the Russian ruler agreed to continue talking about talking.

Around the same time, Putin launched a massive drone strike against Ukrainian soldiers defending their country and civilians attempting to survive the long war waged against them by an enemy seeking to destroy their freedom and identity.

Despite Presiden...

Following the Oct. 7, 2023 invasion of Israel and the pogrom carried out by terrorists from Hamas and affiliated Islamist organizations, and some Gazan civilians as well, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opined that the attack “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Well, he’s correct just not in the way he intended.

Hebron is an ancient city 20 miles south of Jerusalem in Judea, now more usually referred to as the West Bank. 

Hebron is th...

Melanie Phillips is a British journalist, broadcaster, and author.

Her weekly column currently appears in The Times of London. She’s a regular panelist on BBC Radio’s The Moral Maze and speaks on public platforms throughout the English-speaking world.

Her best-selling book, “Londonistan,” about the British establishment’s capitulation to Islamist aggression, was published in 2006. She followed this in 2010 with “The World Turned Upsi...

China is conducting what a top US military officer called a breathtaking expansion and modernization of its nuclear and conventional forces. An October 2024 Defense Intelligence Agency report estimated that by 2030, “China will have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads, most of which will be fielded on systems capable of ranging the continental United States.”

Meanwhile, Russia maintains the largest foreign nuclear stockpile...

Last week, Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said that talks with the Trump administration appear to be going well.

This tells host Cliff May that from an American perspective, the talks are going badly.

President Trump has said that America’s goal is the “full dismantlement” of the regime’s nuclear weapons program, including its capacity to produce missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads to t...

According to host Cliff May, "Mark Montgomery is an admirable admiral. Another adjective I’d use to describe him: peripatetic. Which is a fancy way of saying he’s on the road more than Willie Nelson—whom he does not otherwise resemble."

Most recently the retired flag officer has been in Lithuania, which on the east shares a border with the Russian vassal state of Belarus, and on the southwest has a border with the Russian oblast of ...

If you were to visit Turkey years ago, it might’ve felt both Middle Eastern and European. It was Muslim and secular. It was, more or less, free and democratic.  

Host Cliff May says the food was great, too. 

Now? Well, he’s told the food is still great.  

To explain what has happened and what is happening in Turkey, Cliff is joined by his FDD colleague Sinan Ciddi.

About Sinan

Sinan is also an Associate Professor of National Security S...

Filling in for host Cliff May is FDD CEO and host of The Iran Breakdown, Mark Dubowitz, joined by former Israeli national security advisor Jacob Nagel, now a senior fellow at FDD.

Following President Trump’s recent signaling that he's open to nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic, Mark and Jacob revisit the flaws of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the  general complexities of Iran's nuclear program. They discuss Iran's curre...

Lord Andrew Roberts has written or edited 20 books which have been translated into 28 languages and have redefined our understanding of leaders and leadership, of empires and nations, of the forces that have shaped—and in some cases misshaped—the modern world.

He’s won many awards, including the Bradley Prize for which he was nominated by host Cliff May.

In 2022, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Roberts of Belgravia.

His...