Abbreviation FDD President Clifford May | Location Washington, D.C., U.S. | |
Formation 2001; 16 years ago (2001) Type Public policy think tank Website www.defenddemocracy.org | ||
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a think tank based in Washington, D.C., focusing on national security and foreign policy. Its political leanings have been described variously as either nonpartisan or neoconservative. FDD holds events throughout the year, including its annual Washington Forum, briefings on Capitol Hill, expert roundtables for public officials, diplomats, and military officers, book releases, and panel discussions and debates within the policy community.
Contents
Iran
Led by executive director Mark Dubowitz, FDD's Iran research seeks to educate "the public and political elites in both the United States and abroad about the activities of Iran and its Syrian and Hezbollah proxies". FDD says it does this through attacking Iran's "most vulnerable points: its worldwide media operations, its standing in the United States and Europe, its finances, and its efforts to support terrorist activities abroad". Specifically, FDD concerns itself with the Iran's nuclear ambitions, through its Iran Energy Project and Iran's human rights abuses through its Iran Human Rights Project.
In 2008, FDD founded the Iran Energy Project which "conducts extensive research on ways to deny the Iranian regime the profits of its energy sector". The Wall Street Journal credited FDD with bringing "the idea of gasoline sanctions to political attention." FDD's bi-partisan approach to advocating sanctions legislation has earned praise from Congressmen in both parties. Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA) thanked the organization saying "FDD has been one the most committed and creative voices in Washington regarding the Iran nuclear issue and specifically Iran sanctions". FDD's efforts to target the Iranian regime's finances has gone beyond energy sanctions. The organization pushed for sanctions against the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its use of Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to perform transactions. According to The Wall Street Journal, FDD "has done most of the spadework on the issue".
FDD's Long War Journal
FDD's Long War Journal is a FDD project dedicated to reporting the Global War on Terror launched by the United States and its allies following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Under the direction of FDD senior fellows Bill Roggio and Thomas Joscelyn, this website covers stories about countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Iraq and follows the actions of al Qaeda and its affiliates. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, "Roggio's greatest service, then, may be the way he picks up where the mainstream press leaves off, giving readers a simultaneously more specific and holistic understanding of the battlefield".
Syria
For years, Syria has been a focus of FDD's research because of its alignment with Iran and support for organizations such as Hezbollah. In 2012, as the Arab Spring spread to Syria, FDD launched "The Syria Project" to support dissident efforts in removing the Assad regime. In that effort, FDD facilitated a Skype call between dissidents and U.S. journalists in 2012 and produced multiple studies and memos urging U.S. officials to act.
Criticism
The International Relations Center features a report on the foundation on its "Right Web" website, a program of the left of center think tank Institute for Policy Studies which, according to its mission statement, seeks to "check the militaristic drift of the country". The report states that "although the FDD is an ardent critic of terrorism, it has not criticized actions taken by Israel against Palestinians that arguably fall into this category". It terms the FDD a "prominent member of the web of neoconservative-aligned think tanks", including the American Enterprise Institute, the Hudson Institute and Freedom House.
The political blog ThinkProgress has criticized FDD for "alarmist rhetoric and fear mongering", for example in April 2002 when they aired a 30-second television ad campaign called "Suicide Strategy" that was described by critics as "conflating" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with the likes of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. As FDD explained it: "a militant Islamic terrorist who 'martyrs' himself by hijacking a plane and flying it into the World Trade Center"—i.e., the September 11 attacks—"is no different from a militant Islamic terrorist who 'martyrs' himself by strapping explosives to his body and walking into a hotel"—i.e., Palestinian suicide attacks.
Funding
In 2011, ThinkProgress, a progressive advocacy organization, published FDD's Form 990 documents that revealed where FDD funding came from, from 2001 to 2004. Donors included:
ThinkProgress concluded, "Most of the major donors are active philanthropists to 'pro-Israel' causes both in the U.S. and internationally. With the disclosure of its donor rolls, it becomes increasingly apparent that FDD’s advocacy of U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, its hawkish stance against Iran, and its defense of right-wing Israeli policy is consistent with its donors’ interests in 'pro-Israel' advocacy".