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Facebook Fatwa: Saudi Clerics, Wahhabi Islam and Social Media
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has released the first-ever study of what radical Saudi Wahhabists are preaching to their followers about the United States and non-Muslims on social media sites.
Learn MoreAnalysis & Commentary - Clifford D. May
Iran’s Meaningless Presidential Elections
The Islamic Republic of Iran is holding its eleventh presidential election on Friday. It’s all very exciting — just as it was in 1979 when, right after the Iranian Revolution... more...
Al Qaeda vs. Hezbollah
Back during the Bush administration, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage famously called Hezbollah the “A Team of terrorists,” adding, “al-Qaeda is actually the B Team.” more...
Why They Fight
In his 6,000-word speech at the National Defense University last week, President Obama devoted only one paragraph to the ideology of those who proclaim themselves America’s enemies. more...
Black Swans, Icebergs and Benghazi
‘Humans are great at self-delusion,” the polymathic philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb has observed. I’m confident he’d agree that the humans who populate the foreign-policy... more...
Night at the Newseum
Inspire is a glossy, English-language, online magazine published by al-Qaeda. It was conceived by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric and al-Qaeda leader, who also contributed editorials. more...
The Unbearable Lightness of Syria Policy
“Arming the rebels — that’s an option. You look at and rethink all options. It doesn’t mean you do or you will. . . . It doesn’t mean that the president has decided on anything.” more...
Guantanamo’s Hunger Artists
The detention camp at Guantanamo Bay was established in 2002 to hold the most dangerous of those captured in what the Bush administration called the Global War on Terrorism. more...
The View from the West Bank
In the West Bank, on hilltops six miles northwest of the de facto Palestinian capital of Ramallah, a new and ultramodern city is rising. Rawabi is to have handsome white stone apartment blocks.... more...
The Syrian Conundrum
President Obama warned the Assad regime not to use chemical weapons against the rebels. To do so, he said, would be to cross a “red line.” So now that it’s been crossed the consequences are . . . unclear. more...
Defense in the Age of Jihad
Defense policies are not created in a vacuum. They are designed to meet threats. Over time, threats change in ways that are difficult to predict. In the past, America’s enemies generally... more...
What We Know
The working hypothesis at this point has to be that what took place in Boston was an act of Jihadi terrorism. The suspects are Chechens. Chechen independence is a longstanding issue... more...
The Problem with the Pivot
Last year, the White House announced a “pivot” toward Asia, a “rebalancing” of what National Security adviser Tom Donilon called “all elements of U.S. power.” There was to be less emphasis... more...
Lessons in Supreme Leadership
North Korea may be an economic basket case with a GDP that is less than half that of Ethiopia, and with much of the population malnourished and lacking even an electric light to turn on when darkness falls. more...
Thatcher Rules
I have a signed copy of Margaret Thatcher’s Statecraft on the mantle above my fireplace. On the front cover is a formal portrait, exactly what you’d expect: She appears to be attempting to smile, not entirely successfully. more...
Holy Wars
In much of what we now call the Muslim world, Muslims are fighting Muslims. The conflicts fall into two broad categories: those in which militants battle militants, and those in which militants battle moderates. The outcomes of these conflicts matter. more...
Crossing Jordan
Meeting with King Abdullah II in Jordan last Friday, President Obama was gracious enough to mention the monarch’s great-grandfather, King Abdullah I, who “gave his life in the name of peace.” more...
Israeli Leader Apologizes to Turkey for Fatal Ship Raid
Apologizing to Turkey should be seen as a concession by Prime Minister Netanyahu to President Obama because escalating tensions between Turkey, a NATO member, and Israel, America’s most reliable... more...
The Return of Missile Defense
Chuck Hagel deserves praise — four words I did not expect to be writing — for announcing an expansion of the U.S. missile-defense system. Fourteen additional ground-based long-range missile interceptors... more...
St. Patrick’s Day with Edmund Burke
Perhaps because St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, I’ve found myself re-reading Edmund Burke and Conor Cruise O’Brien — and drinking Irish whiskey. I first became acquainted with these three sources of stimulation back in 1978. more...
How to Beat OPEC
If you suffer a heart attack but your doctor thinks you’ve got a nasty case of indigestion, the medicine he prescribes probably won’t cure you. The same applies to policymaking and legislating:... more...