FDD's Foreign Podicy – Details, episodes & analysis

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 intelligence community, professors of Middle East and Islamic studies at elite universities, the news media.

To unpack why and discuss the threats facing America and other democratic societies all these years later, host Cliff May is joined by his FDD colleagues Hussain Abdul-Hussain and Jonathan Schanzer.

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 war changing, and what is he doing to ensure that the U.S. Army is ready to deploy, fight, and win?

To find out, Bradley Bowman — senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power and guest host — went to the Pentagon to ask the general.

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 years later, she was released in exchange for three convicted Iranian terrorists connected to a bomb plot in Bangkok in 2012. 

Two years ago, she published a memoir which became a bestseller: The Uncaged Sky: My 804 Days in an Iranian Prison. 

From her forced confession and kangaroo court sentencing presided over by Tehran’s notorious “hanging judge” Salavati to her solitary confinement and near-escape at the infamous Evin Prison and successful Australia- and UK-led efforts to free her in a prisoner swap, Kylie joins host Cliff May and his FDD colleague Behnam Ben Taleblu to discuss how her time in captivity shaped her current views on Iran’s regional aggression, the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ protests, and hostage diplomacy — and how the West can help the Iranian people by not helping the regime. 

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 reported on numerous conflicts, both from inside Washington where the decisions are made and from the battlegrounds where the blood is spilled.

He has served as a Times bureau chief in Moscow, and as a roving correspondent based in London. He’s currently a national security correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.

A few years ago, he was Writer-in-Residence at FDD where he worked on his most recent book: Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, From Barack Obama to Donald Trump.

In this episode, Michael joins Cliff for a discussion on America’s fight against the Islamic State.

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 we learned? What lessons have we not learned?

Joining host Cliff May to discuss: LTG (Ret.) H.R. McMaster, former White House National Security Advisor who now serves as Chairman of the Board of Advisors at FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP); Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD's CMPP; and Bill Roggio, FDD senior fellow and editor of FDD’s Long War Journal.

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 joined by FDD Chief Executive Mark Dubowitz, who was in Israel during the three-day battle, and by FDD Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer. Jon, who is also the author of Gaza Conflict 2021: Israel, Hamas, and Eleven Days of War, closely followed reporting on the fighting in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.

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.

Meanwhile, Putin's disregard for the sovereignty of Russia's neighbors prompted Finland and Sweden to seek admission into NATO — even as NATO member Turkey fluctuates between cooperation and competition with Russia.

How are Russian and Ukrainian forces currently performing on the battlefield? What role has Turkey played in the conflict, and will this impact the future of U.S.-Turkey relations? Are recent changes to NATO's military posture sufficient? How should we view the likely addition of Finland and Sweden to the NATO alliance?

Bradley Bowman — senior director of FDD's Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP), filling in for host Cliff May — poses these and related questions to two experts.

LTG (Ret.) Ben Hodges previously served as the Commanding General of the U.S. Army in Europe and is now the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Amb. Eric S. Edelman previously served as U.S. Ambassador to both Turkey and Finland and at the Pentagon as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. He's now a senior advisor at FDD where he also serves on the Board of Advisors for FDD's CMPP.

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 Taliban.

To discuss Zawahiri's career and killing and what's next for Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Afghanistan, and the global jihad, Foreign Podicy host Cliff May is joined by FDD senior fellow and editor of FDD’s Long War Journal Bill Roggio and senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP) Bradley Bowman.

A couple of weeks ago, Joe Biden went to Israel and Saudi Arabia. This was not a summer vacation. The president had goals. Did he achieve any? Did he set any back?

Foreign Podicy host Clifford D. May poses these and other questions to Michael Singh and Hussain Abdul-Hussain.

Michael is the Managing Director and Lane-Swig Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute. From 2005 to 2008, he was senior director for Middle East affairs at the White House National Security Council.

He’s also served as special assistant to secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell and at the U.S. embassy in Israel.

Hussain is a research fellow at FDD. Formerly a managing editor of Beirut’s Daily Star, he has reported from war zones in Lebanon and Iraq. He headed the Washington Bureau of the Kuwaiti daily Alrai.

He’s been a Visiting Fellow with London’s Chatham House, and he’s published in numerous Arabic and English language publications, including in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Great Britain is in the midst of a leadership crisis.

The decline and fall of the always-entertaining Boris Johnson has led to a stormy contest among Conservative Party politicians to replace him, and the Labour Party now has a chance to replace the Conservatives.

It’s complicated as are the consequences of Brexit, the separate Brexit of Harry and Meghan and their transformation into the Duke and Duchess of Hollywood.

To help make sense of it all, host Cliff May is joined by Nile Gardiner.

Nile is director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.

Earlier in his career, he was Foreign Policy Researcher for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, advising her on international policy and assisting with her book, Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World.

Nile is extraordinarily well-educated. He received a doctorate in history from Yale University. He also has two master's degrees from Yale, and a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in modern history from Oxford University. He has lived in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America.