Hard-nosed foreign policy in real time.
FDD's Foreign Podicy treats foreign affairs as an argument over power, history, and democratic defense. Episodes move from current events into tougher questions about Iran, China, Turkey, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, and U.S. policy choices.
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FDD's Foreign Podicy is a foreign policy and national security show with the feel of a fast-moving seminar that has wandered into a debate room. Cliff May gives each episode a clear provocation, then uses questions, corrections, and historical detours to push guests toward the strategic meaning of the moment. The show does not treat headlines as isolated events. Hungary's politics, Lebanon-Israel talks, Iran's revenue pressure, Turkey's regional ambitions, China's party-state strategy, and Russia's hybrid warfare are all pulled into wider arguments about power and democratic resilience. It is serious work. It is also more conversational than formal policy audio, with dry jokes, interruptions, and long answers that circle back until the point is sharpened. Iran is a major recurring focus, especially the Islamic Republic's ideology, military posture, proxies, nuclear ambitions, and relationship to U.S. decision-making. China appears through congressional scrutiny, Xi Jinping's authority, and the question of how Washington should respond to hostile strategy rather than just competition. Turkey is treated as a changed NATO ally under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with attention to Hamas, Gaza, and the Middle East. Ukraine and Eastern Europe enter through battlefield reporting, cyber sabotage, election interference, chemical poisoning, and weaponized migration. Israel is discussed through security, diplomacy, and the arguments made for its place in the region. The show's center of gravity is unmistakably hard-nosed. It favors deterrence, democratic defense, and close attention to regimes that use terrorism, proxies, coercion, or gray-zone tactics. Guests are usually people with direct policy, diplomatic, legislative, military, or research experience. That gives the show a practical texture: the conversation keeps returning to what governments can do, what they have misunderstood, and what happens when they wait too long. The tone is grave without becoming remote. It is best for listeners who want foreign policy argued in concrete terms, with history close at hand and euphemism kept to a minimum.
Made for: For listeners who follow national security, U.S. foreign policy, and authoritarian power closely. It especially suits people who want strategic debate rather than headline recap.
What sets it apart: The show pairs current events with institutional memory, bringing FDD voices and policy-world guests into long, argumentative exchanges. It stands out for its blunt focus on adversarial regimes, deterrence, democratic defense, and the practical consequences of diplomacy or force.
A national security and foreign policy podcast from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Cliff May and FDD specialists connect geopolitical arguments to the military capabilities, intelligence limits, and diplomatic choices beneath them.
Cliff May starts with a strategic proposition, then asks FDD specialists to test its consequences. FDD's Foreign Podicy treats foreign policy as an argument about power: what adversaries intend, what alliances can deter, and where American decisions create openings or impose…
Cliff May asks which targets matter; you get the harder question of whether the intelligence is there.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A wide-ranging foreign-policy review finds its clearest charge in Hungary's test of democratic restraint after Orban's defeat.
From Budapest to Beirut to Tehran tracks a turbulent run of foreign policy, moving through Hungary's election, Lebanese-Israeli peace talks in Washington, and ceasefire talks in Islamabad with envoys of Tehran's surviving rulers that came to nothing.
A sharply argued look at Israel in Arab politics through contested identity language and Abdel Nasser's regional ambitions.
FDD's Foreign Policy frames a pointed question: what would an Arab case for Israel sound like? Cliff May brings that question to Hussein Abdel Hussein, a Foundation for Defense of Democracies research fellow and author of The Arab Case for Israel, after sketching Jewish,…
A sharp foreign-policy discussion on Iranian hostility, deterrence, and the assumptions behind negotiating with Tehran.
FDD's Foreign Policy presents Iran's hostility toward the United States as something visible in slogan, policy, and action, tying that posture to the hostage crisis and later attacks in Beirut, Saudi Arabia, East Africa, and Iraq.
A sober Iran discussion centered on possible strikes and the intelligence needed to make them count.
Warnings around Israel and a possible U.S. military move against Iran give this PlayNext episode its frame: a measured test of what intelligence can support before policy turns into force.
A forceful, concrete discussion of Ukraine's fifth year and the support Russia draws from North Korea, Iran, and China.
FDD's Foreign Podesty returns to Russia's war on Ukraine with a focused question: what kind of support can help sustain Ukraine's war of independence as the conflict enters its fifth year?
McMaster weighs allied defense spending against the case for continued American engagement.
Cliff May asks H.R. McMaster about American security strategy as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea cooperate across multiple domains. May worries that talk of spheres of influence could mean pulling back from regions where the United States has vital interests.
Cliff May interviews British journalist Melanie Phillips about her new book arguing that Jews and Christians built the West and are essential to saving it.
A preview of a new podcast series about Iran's nuclear ambitions and geopolitical challenges, hosted by Mark Dubowitz.
Cliff May opens FDD's Foreign Podicy with three linked shocks: Peter Magyar's landslide against Viktor Orban in Hungary, Israeli-Lebanese talks in Washington, and a U.S.
Cliff May, Sinan Cidi, and Jonathan Schanzer examine Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s transformation of Turkey from the secular NATO state associated with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk into what Cidi calls a “sultanistic version of Islamism.” Cidi describes Erdogan’s 1,200-room palace and a post-2017 presidential system that can decree laws, override Congress, and avoid judicial oversight.
Cliff May interviews Chairman John Moolenaar about the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party's work ahead of a planned Trump-Xi meeting.
Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery discusses his recent travels to Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Lithuania, focusing on Russian hybrid warfare tactics.
Cliff May and Mark Dubowitz discuss the Islamic Republic of Iran's history of jihad and the progress of kinetic operations against it.
Hussein Abdel Hussein says Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen could benefit if Iran is defanged.
Cliff May says Iran's rulers turned 'death to America' into a policy after 1979, and he links that line to the 444-day hostage crisis, the Beirut bombings, and later attacks in Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Iraq.
"It is go big or go home" becomes the case for using military force to "defang the military capabilities" of Iran.
Montgomery says Russia is gaining "tenths of a percentage" of territory while losing about 150,000 dead in a year.
Bradley Bowman and H.R.
This episode discusses the persecution of Christians globally, focusing on China's crackdown on the Zion Church and the arrest of Pastor Ezra Jin.
Cliff May introduces a conversation with H.R.