Iran

Mike Waltz: Warrior Diplomat and Congressman

Michael G. Waltz served as a Green Beret in the Middle East and Africa, and commanded a Special Forces company in the mountains of Afghanistan.
He served as a counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, and director for Afghanistan policy in the office of the Secretary of Defense.
He is the author of a marvelous 2014 book: Warrior Diplomat: A Green Beret’s Battles from Washington to Afghanistan, the proceeds of which continue to benefit the Green Beret Foundation.
He was also – we’re proud to say – a non-resident senior fellow at FDD years ago.
He now serves in Congress, where he’s a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He continues to serve in the National Guard.
He joins Foreign Podicy host Cliff May to talk about a range of critical national security and foreign policy issues.

The Fog of War and Diplomacy

Russia’s brutal war continues, and President Zelensky is asking for more assistance as the people of Ukraine attempt to exercise their right to defend themselves from an imperialist aggressor seeking to end their existence as an independent nation.
The Biden administration’s efforts to revive Barack Obama’s fatally flawed deal with Iran’s rulers — in an even weaker form — may be close to completion.
Once that happens, Iran’s theocrats will be enriched. They will have more to spend on terrorism, missile development, and proxy wars.
Their path to a nuclear weapons capability will be clear — even if they abide by the agreement which, based on past performance, seems highly unlikely.
It’s probable that, as a provision of that agreement, Biden will grant Russia’s demand for substantial opportunities to evade sanctions.
It’s possible that China’s rulers will take over Russia’s role as a caretaker of Tehran’s highly enriched uranium, which should not inspire confidence.
It’s also likely that the three strongest revisionist and revanchist regimes — those ruling China, Russia, and Iran — will begin working even more closely to diminish the power and influence of the United States. One might call them an Axis of Authoritarians or, more pointedly, an Axis of Tyranny.
Foreign Podicy host Cliff May discusses all this and more with FDD Senior Fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and FDD Senior Fellow Behnam Ben Taleblu.

A War in Ukraine, A Battle in Vienna, and Israel on the Edge

As Vladimir Putin’s troops ravage Ukraine, his envoy in Vienna is steering the U.S. nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Israelis, who know all too well what it means to have bigger neighbors determined to erase your nation from the map, are trying to bring an end to the war and help those suffering as a result of the war — but they can’t forget that Putin has military forces stationed just over their northern border in Syria.
To discuss these and related issues, Foreign Podicy host Cliff May is joined by FDD Senior Vice President Jonathan Schanzer, recently returned from a week of meetings with senior officials in Israel, and FDD Senior Advisor Richard Goldberg, who served for many years as a key staffer in both the House and Senate and, most recently, on the White House National Security Council as Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Enemies and Allies, Villains and Heroes

Joel C. Rosenberg is a New York Times-bestselling author. He’s written 15 novels and four non-fiction books with five million copies in print. Among his readers and fans: George W. Bush, Mike Pence, and Mike Pompeo.
He also has a second vocation as what you might call a religious-political activist. And he has a new book based on that work. It’s titled: “Enemies and Allies.”
Joel talks about his life and his literature with FDD Senior Fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Middle East specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and "Foreign Podicy" host Cliff May.

Biden’s Moment of Truth in Iran

Negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have not gone well. President Biden may soon have to choose between two unappealing options: allowing the theocratic regime to become a nuclear-weapons power or using military force to prevent that outcome.
Mark Dubowitz, FDD’s chief executive, and Matthew Kroenig, a former senior policy advisor at the Pentagon, now a professor of government at Georgetown University, and director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Strategy Initiative, recently published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal arguing that one of those options is decidedly worse than that other. They join Foreign Podicy host Cliff May to discuss.

Strategic Surprise: A Conversation on Nuclear and Missile Threats with Rep. Mike Turner

The People’s Republic of China recently tested an advanced new hypersonic glide vehicle that circles the Earth and is designed to evade U.S. defenses and conduct a nuclear attack against the American homeland.
A new Pentagon report reveals that Beijing is expanding the size of its nuclear arsenal much faster than expected and that in 2020 China’s rulers launched more ballistic missiles for testing and training “than the rest of the world combined.”
Moscow conducted an anti-satellite test on November 15 that created more than 1500 pieces of trackable space debris, putting American astronauts (and Russian cosmonauts) on the International Space Station in danger. The test also demonstrated again Russia’s ability to target American satellites that we depend on for our security.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to expand its ballistic missile arsenal and inch toward a nuclear weapons capability.
As the Biden administration prepares its Nuclear Posture Review for publication next year, what should we understand about the Chinese and Russia nuclear weapons threats to Americans and our allies and what should we do about it?
Should the U.S. adopt a “sole purpose” or “no first use” nuclear policy? What is the status of U.S. efforts to modernize our nuclear deterrent? What is the role of missile defense in all of this, and what level of defense spending is needed to secure our nation?
U.S. Congressman Mike Turner, who represents Ohio’s 10th district, is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and serves as Ranking Member of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, which oversees, among other things, strategic deterrence, nuclear weapons, missile defense, and space.
To discuss these issues and more, Representative Turner sat down with senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power, Bradley Bowman, on this special edition of Foreign Podicy.

Willful Blindness: Revisiting the 2021 Gaza War

In 2005, Israelis withdrew from Gaza – every soldier, every farmer, every synagogue, every grave. It was an historic land-for-peace experiment – and it failed.
In May, Hamas began firing missiles at Israeli cities, towns, and villages, sparking the fourth intense armed conflict since Hamas defeated Fatah and began ruling Gaza.
Many in the international media blamed Israel more than Hamas – despite the fact that it was Hamas that attacked; despite the fact that Hamas used human shields, a clear violation of international and U.S. law; despite the fact that Hamas’ intentions toward Israelis are openly and unambiguously genocidal.
Jonathan Schanzer, FDD’s senior vice president for research, a ground-breaking scholar of Middle Eastern affairs, has now produced the first and, so far, only book on this conflagration: Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus served as the international spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces during the fighting. Both join Foreign Podicy host Cliff May to discuss why Hamas fights and how Israel defends itself.

Nuclear and Chemical Watchdogs or Lapdogs?

Back in 1957, the same year the Soviets put Sputnik — the world’s first artificial satellite — into orbit, and Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up” hit the top of the Billboard charts, the UN established the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The goal was to promote peaceful uses of atomic energy, provide assistance on nuclear safety, and prevent nuclear materials from getting into the wrong hands.
How has that worked out? FDD Research Fellow Andrea Stricker has taken a hard look at the IAEA and written a chapter about it for FDD’s recently published monograph: “A Better Blueprint for International Organizations.”
Andrea also has been keeping track of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), another UN offspring.
She joins Foreign Podicy host Cliff May — as does FDD Senior Fellow Anthony Ruggiero, who has served on the National Security Council advising the White House on a range of issues including weapons of mass destruction.
Participating in the conversation, too: Richard Goldberg, senior advisor to FDD, who has served in the National Security Council and in both houses of Congress. A senior advisor to FDD, he’s the editor of the monograph on international organizations.

The U.N. Record on Health, Human Rights, Trade, and Communications is Worse Than You Think

There are dozens of international organizations affiliated with the United Nations. Some do useful work. Those that do not are under no pressure to improve.
As for those that do harm: They pretty much enjoy impunity.
Republican and Democratic administrations alike have preferred to leave not-well-enough alone.
FDD scholars recently published a monograph, “A Better Blueprint for International Organizations,” examining what has gone wrong, and what could be done – if there is the will – to reform the flawed and deteriorating U.N. system (a system generously funded by American taxpayers).
Foreign Podicy host Cliff May discusses some of the organizations within the U.N. system with Emily de La Bruyere, a senior fellow at FDD who focuses on China; Craig Singleton, an adjunct fellow at FDD who spent more than a decade serving in a series of sensitive national security roles with the United States government overseas; and Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at FDD, who has served on the National Security Council, in both houses of Congress, and as the editor of the FDD monograph.

Israel, Post-Bibi

For the past 12 years, Benjamin Netanyahu served as Israel’s prime minister, fighting wars and wars-between-wars against Hamas and Hezbollah; opposing President Obama’s attempts to propitiate Iran’s rulers who openly threaten Israelis with genocide; attempting to block blows from the United Nations, an organization that spends inordinate amounts of time and money slandering Israelis; engaging in palavers with Vladimir Putin who has now re-established Russia as a power in the Middle East; not convincing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to seriously negotiate with him; yet managing to establish Israeli diplomatic relations with a growing number of nations – including, under the Abraham Accords, Arab nations.
Netanyahu has now been replaced by a diverse coalition of his opponents – on both the right and the left and including an Arab/Muslim party.
How will the new gang cope with Israel’s multiple threats and challenges?
FDD senior vice president Jonathan Schanzer has just returned from the Holy Land. He joins Foreign Podicy host Cliff May for a wide-ranging discussion.

The UN System: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done

The U.N. and other international organizations were designed to give structure to what we like to call the “international community” – establishing and expressing what we like to call “international laws” and “international norms.”
Over recent years, however, authoritarian regimes have been increasingly dominating these entities, and utilizing them for their own, decidedly illiberal ends.
FDD scholars have just published “A Better Blueprint for International Organizations,” a monograph with a foreword by former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, and contributions from a dozen FDD scholars. They make clear what went wrong and what can – and should – be done to fix this broken, indeed, increasingly corrupt, international system.
To discuss these issues, host Cliff May is joined by Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor to FDD and the monograph’s editor, and Morgan Viña, who served as chief of staff and senior policy advisor to Ambassador Haley and is now an adjunct fellow at FDD.

Raisi Rising

An election – of sorts – was held in the Islamic Republic of Iran last week. The victor: Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline theocrat who has been sanctioned by the US for his involvement in the mass execution of political prisoners.
Voter turnout was reportedly low.
To discuss these developments, and how the Biden administration – among others – may respond, host Cliff May is joined by Ray Takeyh, formerly a senior advisor on Iran at the Department of State, currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; Reuel Marc Gerecht, formerly a Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, currently a senior fellow at FDD; and Benham Ben Taleblu, also a senior fellow at FDD where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues.

Tehran’s Nuclear Secrets

David Albright is a physicist, a former nuclear inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency, an expert on nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation, and the founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security – also known as “the Good ISIS.”
His important new book, written with Sarah Burkhard: “Iran’s Perilous Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons.”
It’s based on the secret archive of the nuclear weapons program of the Islamic Republic. Israeli spies located that archive in a warehouse in Tehran, and spirited much of it out of the country.
What David Albright reveals is alarming and should have a significant impact on the policies of the Biden administration vis-à-vis Iran’s rulers.
He joins host Cliff May and Andrea Stricker, who worked at the Good ISIS for 12 years, and is now a fellow at FDD where she conducts research on nuclear weapons proliferation and illicit procurement networks.

Eleven Days in May: The Latest Battle in the Long War Against Israel

The Islamic Republic of Iran provides Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad with rockets and other weapons, technology, training, and funding. Over 11 days in May, the two groups fired more than four thousand rockets at Israeli cities and villages.
President Biden supported Israel’s right to defend itself but, at the same time, his envoys in Vienna have been negotiating a return to President Obama’s Iran deal. Iran’s rulers want billions of dollars and other concessions in exchange for allowing America to rejoin a deal that at most slows their progress toward a nuclear weapons capability.
Since money is fungible, that means America will be helping fund Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as Hezbollah and Ansar Allah in Yemen.
Joining host Cliff May to discuss these developments are Lahav Harkov, Senior Contributing Editor and Diplomatic Correspondent of The Jerusalem Post; Jonathan Schanzer, FDD Senior Vice President; and Brad Bowman, Senior Director of FDD's Center on Military and Political Power.

Biden’s Mission to Realign the Middle East

President Biden has been eager to rejoin the deal that President Obama concluded with Iran’s rulers in 2015 and from which President Trump withdrew three years later.
The quarrel between advocates for, and critics of, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been viewed as a disagreement over how best to prevent the theocrats in Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.
Michael Doran, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies dissent from that view. In Tablet, they’ve written a comprehensive analysis arguing that Mr. Biden intends to both enrich and empower Iran’s rulers – while simultaneously downgrading relations with Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Arab states, Israel, and other former friends (read their article here).
In other words, President Biden is attempting to establish a “new Middle Eastern order” — one that regards the Islamic Republic of Iran as America’s primary strategic partner in the region. They conclude also that President Biden has decided not to speak candidly about this dramatic change – which they call “The Realignment.”
As for latest kinetic battle between Israel and Hamas, they see that as an inevitable consequence of the Biden tilt toward Tehran. They discuss all this and more with Foreign Podicy host Cliff May.

The Middle East Muddle

Here’s a riddle for you: Name something Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden have in common? Here's one answer: None has appeared to understand the theological premises that motivate such groups as al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Islamic State — nor those that drive the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Nor have they had clarity about the thinking of those brave Muslims who oppose such interpretations of Islam.
In this episode, host Cliff May discusses these and related issues with three eminent scholars.
Gilles Kepel has authored more than twenty academic books on contemporary Islam, the Arab World and Muslims in Europe, translated into numerous languages. A tenured Professor at Paris Sciences et Lettres University, his last essay, The Prophet and the Pandemic / From the Middle East to Atmospheric Jihadism, just released in French, has topped the best-seller lists and is currently being translated into English and a half-dozen languages. The excerpt: The Murder of Samuel Paty, is in the spring issue of Liberties Journal.
Bernard Haykel is a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. His research focuses on the “political and social tensions that arise from questions about religious identity and authority” with a particular emphasis on Islam, history and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. His books include Saudi Arabia in Transition and Revival and Reform in Islam.
And Reuel Marc Gerecht, a disciple of the late, great Bernard Lewis, is a former Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and currently a senior fellow at FDD.

The Thin Red Line: Joby Warrick on the U.S. Response to this Century’s Worst War Crimes

Joby Warrick is a distinguished journalist, a longtime Washington Post national security reporter, and a Pulitzer Prize-winner. His latest book is: “Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America’s Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World.”
To discuss Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons to mass murder his fellow Syrians, and what the U.S. did – and did not – do about it, he joins David Adesnik, FDD’s Director of Research and senior fellow on Syria, and FDDs president and Foreign Podicy host Cliff May.

The UN and the Illiberal International Order

With the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945, the United States emerged as the strongest nation on earth. But rather than emulate hegemons of the past, American leaders envisioned a new and different world order.
Their goal was to organize an "international community," establish "universal human rights," and a growing body of "international law."
This project required new institutions, in particular the United Nations.
Three quarters of a century later, it requires willful blindness not to see that the UN and many other international organizations have become bloated and corrupt bureaucracies, increasingly serving the interests of despots.
To discuss what’s gone wrong and what might be done to prevent the UN and other international organizations from drifting further into the clutches of authoritarians host Clifford D. May is joined by Richard Goldberg, Orde Kittrie, and Emma Reilly.
Rich Goldberg is a Senior Advisor at FDD. Among his many government positions, Rich previously served as the Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the National Security Council, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to former Mark Kirk, both when Kirk was in the House and then the Senate. Rich is also an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. We thank him for his service.
Also joining is Orde Kittrie. He, too, is a Senior Fellow at FDD as well as a professor of law. He is a leading expert on nonproliferation law and policy, and an expert on international law, particularly as it relates to the Middle East. On lawfare, well, he wrote the book. Its title: Lawfare: Law as a Weapon of War. Orde served for over a decade in various legal and policy positions at the U.S. State Department. He was a lead US negotiator at the UN for the treaty on the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism and participated in drafting several UN Security Council resolutions.
Joining, too, is Emma Reilly who has worked in the field of human rights for almost 20 years. She joined the UN Human Rights Office in 2012. In 2013, she blew the whistle on an exceptional and dangerous policy: UN bureaucrats giving to the Chinese government the names of dissidents, including US citizens, who planned to engage UN human rights mechanisms. The bureaucracy’s response: To not fix the problem and to attempt to fire her instead.
All three join host Cliff May for this episode to discuss what happened and what, if anything, can be done moving forward to combat this high level of corruption.

Iran’s Road from Monarchy to Islamist Theocracy and Empire

February 11, 2021 is the forty-second anniversary of the revolution that transformed Iran from a Western-aligned monarchy to an anti-Western Islamist theocracy.
Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, one of America’s leading analysts of contemporary Iran, and the author of a new book: “The Last Shah: America, Iran and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty.”
Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior fellow at FDD, a former officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and also an expert on Iran — both contemporary and ancient.
Both join host Cliff May to discuss the Revolution.

Arms Control and the Man

Marshall Billingslea has worked on a range of significant and difficult national security issues.
He served as Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing at the Treasury Department, president of the international Financial Action Task Force, Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. He’s also been an Assistant Secretary General at NATO.
Last April, he was appointed Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control with the personal rank of ambassador — a challenging portfolio over the months that have followed.
To find out more, he joins Cliff May and Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power, for a discussion on the latest national security issues.

The Iraq-Iran War: An Unhappy 40th Anniversary

On September 22, 1980, Iraq and Iran went to war. The conflict dragged on for eight long years, taking an estimated half million lives. When it was over, both countries and the Middle East had been profoundly changed.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert and senior fellow at FDD — also a native Farsi speaker who has been intensively studying the region for years — talks with host Cliff May about this not-so-well-remembered war, and its significant fallout.
For additional background reading, read Behnam's latest article, "Why The Iran-Iraq War Matters For The Success Of Maximum Pressure," here.

Predators in the Global Jungle

David Kilcullen is an Australian-American soldier and scholar who served as a top advisor to the U.S. military in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
He also has worked in Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, and Southeast Asia.
And he’s an advisor to FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP).
His new book, The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West, looks at the military threats facing America and its allies, including what the dragons — Moscow and Beijing — and the snakes — Tehran, Pyongyang, and non-state jihadi groups – are learning from each other. He suggests the options that need to be considered if free nations are “to evolve and survive the long twilight struggle ahead.”
He discusses these and related national security issues with host Cliff May on episode 54.

War and Peace, and Wars Between Wars

In the past — at least in the past as we like to remember it — wars began with declarations and ended with surrenders or negotiated “peace agreements.”
In the real world — most emphatically in the real world of the 21st century — there are wars, and there are wars between wars.
Jacob Nagel, a senior fellow at FDD, served as head of Israel’s National Security Council. Before that, he served in the Israel Defense Forces, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
Bradley Bowman is senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). He has served as a national security advisor to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. He was also a U.S. Army officer, “Blackhawk” pilot, and assistant professor at West Point, from which he also graduated.
They join host Clifford D. May to discuss issues of war and peace — and the grey zone in between.
 
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More from Cliff: https://www.fdd.org/team/clifford-d-may/ 
More from Jacob: https://www.fdd.org/team/jacob-nagel/ 
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More from FDD's Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP): https://www.fdd.org/projects/center-on-military-and-political-power/ 

Sharpening the Iran File ft. Richard Goldberg (part one)

The deal President Obama cut with Iran's rulers provided them with billions of dollars and a "patient pathway" to the acquisition of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to targets anywhere on the planet.
President Trump withdrew from that deal and, in its place, initiated a "maximum pressure" campaign of economic sanctions intended to change the regime's behavior — if not change the regime itself.
Richard Goldberg, who recently served as a director on the National Security Council (NSC) and is now back at FDD as a senior advisor, joins host Cliff May to discuss what the Trump administration's policies and strategies on Iran have — and have not — achieved so far.

China and the Future of Defense

The Chinese Communist Party represents a multi-faceted and increasingly formidable threat to the United States and its democratic allies. In this intense competition with Beijing, the U.S. must ensure its war fighters have the most capable and technologically advanced weapons in the world.
If America’s technological superiority is allowed to deteriorate, Beijing may be tempted to undertake aggression that the U.S. could struggle to defeat — aggression that could have been avoided.To prevent this from happening, the House Armed Services Committee has established a Future of Defense Task Force focused on the U.S. defense innovation base.
On this special edition episode of Foreign Podicy, Bradley Bowman — Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP)— is joined by the task force’s co-chair — Congressman Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts — to discuss the goals of the task force, the health of the U.S. defense innovation base, and the growing threat from China.