Daniel N. Hoffman spent decades as an officer in America’s “clandestine services.” He was a station chief in Moscow and Baghdad, and he was chief of the CIA's Near East Division. He also did a tour of duty in South Asia. He’s now a Fox News contributor and a columnist for the Washington Times where host Cliff May writes the weekly “Foreign Desk” co…

When we talk about ‘hostage diplomacy’, it’s almost like we’re normalizing and legitimizing hostage-taking and admitting that American policy is not to deter hostage-taking or punish hostage-takers but simply to manage the criminals’ demands for ransom and the release of their terrorists and other rewards – and to do it with respect and civility. V…

NATO is 75 years old. It was founded to “deter” the expansion of the Soviet Union, “forbid” the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong American presence on the continent, and “encourage European political integration.” Today, there is a European Union, reasonably integrated politically, nationalist militarism is not a serious …

As the Israel Defense Forces appear to have almost completed their mission to defeat Hamas terrorists in Rafah, a Gazan city along the Egyptian border, the Islamic Republic of Iran is utilizing Hezbollah, its proxy in Lebanon, to attack – even more aggressively – Israel’s northern territories. Behind Hezbollah, behind Hamas, behind Islamic Jihad, b…

After attending a conference she was invited to in the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2018, Australian-British academic Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested by the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of espionage which the Australian government rejected as "baseless.” Two …

South Africa has been in the news lately. Most recently, it had elections. There’s also this: The government of South Africa has filed a lawsuit under the Genocide Convention to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The indictment is not against Hamas whose terrorists invaded Israel and massacred more than a thousand men, women, and chil…

Turkey is a NATO ally, but not a reliable one. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has developed close relations with authoritarian powers like Russia and China. Like his neo-imperialist friends, Erdogan longs for the resurrection of the Ottoman Empire which ruled much of the Middle East for centuries. But is that what the Turkish people w…

Filling in for host Cliff May this week is Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of FDD, and he’s joined by Karim Sadjadpour. They cover the full gamut of U.S. foreign policy on Iran, from looking back at President Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic and President Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the JCPOA to looking ahead and arguing for poli…

The first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state was Egypt. Following the Yom Kippur War of 1973, came the Camp David Accords of 1978 which provided both countries with tangible benefits. While the peace has never been warm, it has held. But since October 7, Egypt’s behavior has been distressing. What’s more, there’s now evidence…

Hamas called its October 7 terrorist attack “Operation al Aqsa Flood,” suggesting a religious – rather than nationalistic – motive. The al Aqsa compound, the third holiest site in Islam, sits atop the ruins of both the ancient temples of the Jews. The first was built by King Solomon and was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The second was bu…

Americans and our allies confront an extraordinary array of threats from an emerging “axis of aggressors,” consisting of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. That’s the bad news.The good news? Americans have an unmatched network of allies and partners with whom we can work to defend our common interests and counter growing threats.Among our partne…

A war is being waged against Israel by Iran’s rulers and their proxies, and they don’t hide their goal — they boast of it: annihilation. Extermination. Genocide. Now seven months into Israel’s defensive war in Gaza following the heinous terrorist attacks of October 7, Hamas is down but not out. And they are literally down: its leaders, including Ya…

In the aftermath of World War II, the establishment of the United Nations seemed like a promising idea: global unity in resolving conflicts peacefully while promoting human rights. Surely everyone in the new international community will support such efforts, right? Wrong. U.N. corruption is obvious to anyone willing to look, but most Americans and …

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s longtime ruler, saw the possibility of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia as a threat to his hegemonic ambitions. On Oct. 7, Hamas, one of Tehran’s proxies, invaded Israel and committed multiple acts of barbarism. That sparked a war and froze prospects for a new Saudi-Israeli relationship. However, The Wall Street Jo…

Last weekend, Iran’s rulers launched a massive missile and drone assault on Israel. Though the attack was thwarted, it should be obvious that the Islamic Republic is willing to pursue its goal of “Death to Israel!” — not just by utilizing Arab proxies and pawns, but now also directly from within its own territory. We must assume that Iran’s rulers …

Six months after Iranian-backed terrorists perpetrated the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, Israel’s ground war against Hamas in Gaza, its conflict with Lebanon-based Hezbollah in Israel’s north, and Tehran’s multi-front shadow war against the Jewish state continue. For a status update, host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleagues B…

The Israeli airstrike next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus on April 1 targeted several high-ranking members of Iran’s Quds Force — an elite division of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, which is designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Among those killed: top IRGC-QF commander in Syria and Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Zahedi. The r…

President Reagan knew a detent with the Soviet Union wouldn’t win the Cold War. If we take off the gloves and force Soviet communism to compete with American democracy, he thought, the U.S. will prevail. In a phrase: “We win, they lose.” He was right. The U.S. won. The Soviet Union collapsed. But in the decades since as America’s role in the world …

After World War II, the United States attempted to construct something new: a liberal, American-led, rules-based international order that would promote human rights, Enlightenment values, and democracy. Today, the dictatorial rulers of China, Russia, and Iran are attempting to establish something different: a world order that is radically illiberal…

In Gaza, Israelis are fighting a ground war – and an underground war – against Hamas, a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Israelis also are responding to missile attacks from Hezbollah, Tehran’s Lebanon-based foreign legion. These are serious conflicts. But they are not separate conflicts. And they could be something else – something worse. Ma…

Next month marks 30 years since the onset of the world’s worst mass slaughter since the Holocaust: the Rwandan genocide. Among the forces that ushered in an end to the conflict was a military officer who would ultimately become Rwanda’s president: Paul Kagame. FDD’s RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery recently met with President Kagame and other senior off…

Joining Cliff for this episode is Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, whose first column appeared 30 years ago this week. Jeff’s career as a journalist has included interviews with Elie Wiesel and Mikhail Gorbachev, and on-the-ground reporting from such exotic locales as Cuba, the Korean DMZ, and Gaza. Cliff asks Jeff how he came to his world view;…

Given the mandate of the United Nations, you might think a genocide perpetrated by a terrorist organization against a democracy in the Middle East would be an opportunity for the UN to exercise its moral authority — perhaps even an obligation, considering the U.S. tax dollars that bankroll it. But you’d be wrong. The UN doesn’t recognize Hamas as a…

As Israel's defensive war in Gaza enters its fifth month, host Cliff May is joined by FDD experts retired Major General Amir Eshel and retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery to talk about the current state of the war including how many Hamas terrorists are thought to remain active on the battlefield in Gaza; the whereabouts of Hamas leaders Yahya Sin…

The U.S. is in a decisive moment. Harried by turmoil and challenges at home, many Americans look overseas and see a world on fire. Ukrainians are fighting for their lives against Putin, wondering whether the west will abandon them; Beijing is undertaking an unprecedented military expansion in preparation for potential aggression in the Taiwan Strai…