Brothers in Arms
The Consolidation of the Turkey-Qatar Axis
Gulf War
The ultimate Middle East missile target: Nuclear reactors
What if a nuclear reactor had been the target of last month’s accurate missile attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities? We might now be mopping up a Middle East Chernobyl. The lesson should be clear: Don’t...
Op-eds
Once Upon a Time, U.S. Foreign Policy Worked
George H.W. Bush's administration was evidence of what the establishment was capable of.
Op-eds
The Qatar Quarrel Benefits the U.S.
It is no secret that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been at odds with President Trump on a range of issues. One of them is the U.S. response to the spat that erupted in early June between Q...
Op-eds
The Kurdish test
In a just world, the Kurds would have a state of their own. Their culture is ancient. They speak a distinctive language. They have a homeland, Kurdistan, ruled for centuries by Arabs, Turks and P...
Op-eds
U.S., NATO Should Develop Contingency Plans to Move Military Bases Out of Turkey, FDD Report Finds
Washington, D.C., August 29, 2016 -- Amidst a recent spike in anti-American sentiment in Turkey since the failed coup d'etat in July, and owing to myriad foreign policy disagreemen...
Press Releases
Covering the Bases
Reassessing U.S. Military Deployments in Turkey After the July 2016 Attempted Coup d’État
Monographs
National Security Correspondent Michael Gordon to Be Writer-in-Residence with FDD
Washington, DC, June 27, 2016 -- Michael R. Gordon will be a Writer-in-Residence with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the organization announced today. Gordo...
Press Releases
Reconsidering safe zones in Syria
The situation in Syria remains bleak, with no end in sight to its five-year civil war. President Bashar Assad’s forces and their Russian and Iranian backers continue to lay waste to rebel-h...
Op-eds
Done Deal?
All administrations are short-sighted. Even the brightest, most reflective people can develop acute tunnel vision when they join the paper-pushing, crisis-a-minute senior ranks of the National Se...
Op-eds
How ISIS Makes Money: Oil Sales
The Islamic State, popularly known as ISIS, is in many ways an innovative economic actor. But its method of bringing oil to market has been anything but cutting-edge. ISIS took advantage of a bla...
Op-eds
How To Change The Game
With Royal Air Force Tornados and Typhoons finally taking to the Syrian skies alongside French Mirages and Rafales, and President Obama addressing the nation on America’s role in the...
Op-eds
The Perils of Joining Turkey in the Fight against ISIS
Turkey’s cabinet last week announ...
Op-eds
The Islamic World’s Thirty Years War
Even as Iran’s Islamic revolutionaries were toppling the Shah in 1979, at the core of their thinking was that their Shia revolution should not be limited to their homeland but ex...
Op-eds
Oil Prices Cripple Iraq’s ISIS War
Co-authored by Daniel R. DePetris Iraq had a miserable 2014. The Islamic State (IS) reentered the country in large numbers early in the year, routing the Iraqi security forces i...
Op-eds
It’s Time to Pursue Regime Change in Iran
There are lots of reasons to be skeptical that 2015 will see a diplomatic breakthrough in efforts to end Iran’s nuclear weapons bid. But one of the more compelling...
Op-eds
Book Review: Dancing With the Iranian Devil
To understand the foreign policy goals of European engagement with Iran during its nascent phase, it is worth recalling a joke of the time. In 1984, Germany’s then-foreign mi...
Op-eds
Saudi anti-Christian Sweep Prompts Calls For US Involvement
Dozens of Christians arrested at a prayer meeting in Saudi Arabia need America's help, according to a key lawmaker who is pressing the State Department on their behalf. Some 28 peop...
Op-eds
Germany’s Gift to BDS: The Slippery Slope of Labeling Israeli Products
The left-liberal German Green party finally forced the hand of the conservative Merkel administration to explicitly declare—what before had been an open secret—its support for product...
Op-eds
A Nasty Piece of Work
A tawdry new book accuses the late Christopher Hitchens of plagiarism—and worse.