Foundation for Defense of Democracies
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Abbreviation | FDD |
---|---|
Formation | 2001 |
Type | 501(c)(3) organization |
13-4174402 | |
Location | |
President | Clifford May |
CEO | Mark Dubowitz |
Website | www |
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is 501(c)(3) non-profit[1] think tank and policy institute[2] and registered lobbying organization[3] based in Washington, D.C., United States.
Its political leanings have been described variously as nonpartisan,[4][5][6][7][8] hawkish,[9][10][11][12] and neoconservative.[13][14][15] 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.
FDD publishes research on foreign policy and security issues, focusing on subjects such as nuclear-non proliferation, cyber threats, sanctions, illicit finance, and policy surrounding North Korea, Iran, Russia, the war in Afghanistan, and other areas of study.[16][17]
FDD has been identified as part of the Israel lobby in the United States by several scholarly sources.[18]
History and mission
FDD was founded shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001.[19] In the initial documents filed for tax-exempt status in Internal Revenue Service, the FDD stated its mission "was to provide education to enhance Israel's image in North America and the public's understanding of issues affecting Israeli-Arab relations".[20] Later documents described the mission as "to conduct research and provide education on international terrorism and related issues".[21]
On its website, FDD describes itself as a "a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)3 policy institute", with focus "on foreign policy and national security that combines policy research, democracy and counterterrorism education, strategic communications and investigative journalism in support of its mission to promote pluralism, defend democratic values and fight the ideologies that drive terrorism".[19]
FDD has been identified as part of the Israel lobby in the United States by several scholarly sources.[22][23][24] Sima Vaknin-Gil, Director General of Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs, had stated that the FDD works in conjunction with Israeli government, in particular the ministry she works for.[25] Later documents described the mission as "to conduct research and provide education on international terrorism and related issues".[26]
On 15 November 2019, FDD was officially registered as a lobby under Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.[3]
Funding
According to Dennis Jett, FDD "offers hardly any information on where its money comes from and where it goes".[19]
2001–2004
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Contributions_to_Foundation_for_Defense_of_Democracies%2C_2001%E2%80%9311.png/450px-Contributions_to_Foundation_for_Defense_of_Democracies%2C_2001%E2%80%9311.png)
In 2011, news website ThinkProgress published FDD's Form 990 documents[28] that revealed where FDD funding came from, from 2001 to 2004. Top donors included:
- Roland Arnall: $1,802,000[29]
- Edgar M. and Charles Bronfman: $1,050,000[29]
- Michael Steinhardt: $850,000[29]
- Abramson Family Foundation (of Leonard Abramson): $822,523[29]
- Bernard Marcus: $600,000[29]
- Lewis Ranieri: $350,000[29]
Other notable donors who gave lesser money during the same period were:
2008–2011
FDD's Schedule A documents filed by the end of the 2011 tax year, indicates that the organization from 2008 to 2011 was funded more than $20,000,000,[30] and the top three donors were:
- Bernard Marcus: $10,745,000[30]
- Paul Singer: $3,600,000[30]
- Sheldon Adelson: $1,510,059[30]
2017
In 2018, AP reported that the United Arab Emirates has wired $2,500,000 to the FDD through Elliott Broidy and George Nader, to host a conference amidst Qatar diplomatic crisis about the country's role as a state-sponsor of terrorism.[31] FDD stated that it does not accept money from foreign governments, adding that "[a]s is our funding policy, we asked if his funding was connected to any foreign governments or if he had business contracts in the Gulf. He assured us that he did not".[31]
Adam Hanieh states that the FDD high-profile conference of 23 May 2017 was in line with UAE's policy at the time, which officially alleged that Qatar finances Islamist groups, adding that emails leaked shortly after show that UAE's Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba had a "cosy relationship" with the FDD, and had reviewed the remarks made by Robert Gates at the convention.[32]
Others
Additionally, it is known that as of 2016, FDD has received donations from the following institutions:
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Activities
The Iran Project
Iran's government officially threatened FDD and its CEO Mark Dubowitz, enacting sanctions against the CEO, and implicitly threatening the think tank with force from the Iranian state's "security apparatus," as implied in Tehran's own official announcement.[37][38]
Led by CEO[39][third-party source needed] Mark Dubowitz, FDD's Iran Program[40][third-party source needed] seeks to "address the threat posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran to America and its allies, FDD conducts detailed research, develops actionable and comprehensive policy options, and appears regularly in media." [40][third-party source needed] 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".[41][third-party source needed] Specifically, FDD concerns itself with Iran's nuclear ambitions through its Iran Energy Project[42][third-party source needed] and Iran's human rights abuses through its Iran Human Rights Project.[43][third-party source needed]
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".[44][third-party source needed] The Wall Street Journal credited FDD with bringing "the idea of gasoline sanctions to political attention."[45] 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".[46][third-party source needed] 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".[47]
The Syria Project
For years, Syria has been a focus of FDD's research because of its alignment with Iran and support for organizations such as Hezbollah.[48] In 2012, as the Arab Spring spread to Syria, FDD launched "The Syria Project" to support dissident efforts in removing the Assad regime.[49][third-party source needed] In that effort, FDD facilitated a Skype call between dissidents and U.S. journalists in 2012[50] and produced multiple studies and memos urging U.S. officials to act.[51][third-party source needed]
Long War Journal
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.[52][third-party source needed] 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".[53]
European Foundation for Democracy
Personnel
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Cliff_May_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg/220px-Cliff_May_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg)
Executives
- Clifford May, President[20]
- Mark Dubowitz, CEO[3]
- Toby Dershowitz, Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Strategy[20]
- Tyler Stapleton, Deputy for Congressional Relations[3]
- John Hannah, Senior Counselor
- Bill McCarthy, COO
- Lawrence Muscant, Senior Vice President
- Jonathan Schanzer, Vice President for Research[20]
Former staff include:
- Nir Boms (President)[20]
Board of directors
As of 2005, members of FDD's board of directors were:
Advisors
The following people served as advisors to FDD as of 2005:
Fellows
Criticism
The International Relations Center features a report on the foundation on its "Right Web" website, a program of the think tank Institute for Policy Studies[55] 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".[56]
The left-leaning political blog ThinkProgress has criticized FDD for "alarmist rhetoric and fear mongering",[29][unreliable source?] 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.
References
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- ^ "Charity Navigator - Rating for Foundation for Defense of Democracies". Charity Navigator. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
- ^ a b c d Schaffer, Aaron; Pecquet, Julian (15 November 2019), "Anti-Iran advocacy group FDD registers to lobby", Al-Monitor, archived from the original on 16 November 2019, retrieved 15 April 2020
- ^ Richter, Paul (March 14, 2012). "Chinese bank pulls out of Pakistan-Iran pipeline project". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2013-03-01. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
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- ^ Wilson, Mark. "How Trump trips up his own Afghanistan peace efforts". politico.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-14. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
- ^ "He Was a Tireless Critic of the Iran Deal. Now He Insists He Wanted to Save It". The New York Times. 2018-05-13. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2018-05-14. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
- ^ Morgan, Wesley (May 9, 2019). "McMaster blasts former colleagues as 'danger to the Constitution'". Politico.
- ^ Foster, Peter (February 24, 2013). "Obama's new head boy". The Telegraph (UK). Archived from the original on 2013-02-28. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
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- ^ Jonsson, Patrik (June 11, 2009). "Shooting of two soldiers in Little Rock puts focus on 'lone wolf' Islamic extremists". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 2013-04-06. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
- ^ "Foundation for Defense of Democracies". onthinktanks.org. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
- ^ "FDD | Issues". FDD. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
- ^ For example, see the following sources:
- Ahmad, Muhammad Idrees (2014), Road to Iraq: The Making of a Neoconservative War, Edinburgh University Press, p. 179, ISBN 9780748693054,
The [Israel] lobby has insulated itself with a network of satellite institutions and alliances all invested in cultivating the view that Israeli and US interests are identical... It consists of... think thanks such as WINEP, JINSA, AEI, CSP, the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, FDD, and the defence/national security programmes of the Hudson Institute and the Heritage Foundation...
- Seliktar, Ofira; Rezaei, Farhad (2018), Iran, Israel, and the United States: The Politics of Counter-Proliferation Intelligence, Rowman & Littlefield, p. 168, ISBN 9781498569767,
The Israel lobby stalwarts—the WINEP, the FDD, the Israel Project, the Jewish National Security Affairs (JINSA), CSP, and UANI, among others—produced a considerable number of reports, policy papers, articles, and op-eds, and their reprasantatives regularly testified before Congress.
- Mearsheimer, John J.; Stephen, Walt (2007), The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pp. 128–130, ISBN 978-0-374-17772-0,
The [Israel] lobby's drift to the right has been reinforced by the emergence of the neoconservatives... The think tanks and advocacy groups most closely associated with these neoconservatives are the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Center for Security Policy (CSP), the Hudson Institute, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), the Middle East Forum (MEF), the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). Virtually all neoconservatives are strongly committed to Israel, a point they emphasize openly and unapologetically.
- Ashwarya, Sujata (2017), India-Iran Relations: Progress, Problems and Prospects, Routledge, p. 179, ISBN 9781351987073,
In a 155-page report "US Non-proliferation Strategy for the Changing Middle East," co-authored by the head of a right-wing pro-Israel lobby group, the Foundation for Defence of Democracies (FDD), Mark Dubowitz, states that...
- Ahmad, Muhammad Idrees (2014), Road to Iraq: The Making of a Neoconservative War, Edinburgh University Press, p. 179, ISBN 9780748693054,
- ^ a b c Jett, Dennis (2017), The Iran Nuclear Deal: Bombs, Bureaucrats, and Billionaires C., Springer, p. 83–86, ISBN 9783319598222
- ^ a b c d e Judis, John B. (18 August 2015), "The Little Think Tank That Could: Inside the small, pro-Israel outfit leading the attack on Obama's Iran deal", Slate, archived from the original on 18 August 2015, retrieved 15 April 2020
- ^ Marusek, Sarah (2017), "Inventing terrorists: the nexus of intelligence and Islamophobia", Critical Studies on Terrorism, 11 (1): 65–87, doi:10.1080/17539153.2017.1351597
- ^ Ahmad, Muhammad Idrees. (2014). The Road to Iraq : the Making of a Neoconservative War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-9304-7. OCLC 888747321.
- ^ Mearsheimer, John J.,. The Israel lobby and U.S. foreign policy. Walt, Stephen M., 1955-. New York. ISBN 978-0-374-17772-0. OCLC 144227359.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Seliktar, Ofira,. Iran, Israel, and the United States : the politics of counter-proliferation intelligence. Rezaei, Farhad,. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-4985-6975-0. OCLC 1030485498.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Un documentaire interdit sur le lobby pro-israélien aux États-Unis". Orient XXI (in French). 2018-11-02. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
- ^ Marusek, Sarah (2018-01-02). "Inventing terrorists: the nexus of intelligence and Islamophobia". Critical Studies on Terrorism. 11 (1): 65–87. doi:10.1080/17539153.2017.1351597. ISSN 1753-9153.
- ^ Bail, Christopher (2015), Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream, Princeton University Press, pp. 73–75, ISBN 978-0-691-15942-3
- ^ "Form 990" (PDF). ThinkProgress. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-12-05. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Clifton, Eli (19 July 2011). "EXCLUSIVE: Documents Shed Light On Those Underwriting The Foundation For Defense Of Democracies". ThinkProgress. Archived from the original on 2014-11-06. Retrieved 2014-11-06.
- ^ a b c d Eli Clifton (2013-06-08). "Home Depot founder's quiet $10 million right-wing investment". Salon. Archived from the original on 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2019-02-07.
- ^ a b Butler, Desmond; LoBianco, Tom; Klapper, Bradley; Day, Chad; Lardner, Richard (26 March 2018), "Witness in Mueller probe aided UAE agenda in Congress", The Associated Press, retrieved 10 January 2020
- ^ Hanieh, Adam (2018), Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East, Cambridge University Press, p. 247, ISBN 9781108429146
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cronin, David; Marusek, Sarah; Miller, David (2016), The Israel Lobby and the European Union (PDF), Glasgow: Public Interest Investigations, ISBN 978-0-9570274-7-3 – via University of Bath
- ^ Ali, Wajahat; Clifton, Eli; Duss, Matthew; Fang, Lee; Keyes, Scott; Shakir, Faiz (August 2011), "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America" (PDF), Center for American Progress, p. 21, archived from the original (PDF) on 8 April 2020
- ^ "Factsheet: European Foundation for Democracy", The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University, 5 December 2019, archived from the original on 13 April 2020, retrieved 1 April 2020
- ^ Kundnani, Arun (2014), "Radicalisation: The Journey of a Concept", in Baker-Beall, Christopher; Heath-Kelly, Charlotte; Jarvis, Lee (eds.), Counter-Radicalisation: Critical Perspectives, Routledge, p. 23, ISBN 978-1-317-68039-0
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- ^ "Foreign Ministry Blacklists 'Foundation for Defence of Democracies'". Islamic Republic of Iran: Ministry of Foreign Affairs. August 24, 2019.
- ^ "FDD | Mark Dubowitz". FDD. Archived from the original on 2019-01-30. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ a b "FDD | Iran Program". FDD. Archived from the original on 2019-01-30. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
- ^ "Iran Research". Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Iran Energy Project". Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Archived from the original on 2013-03-16. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Iran Human Rights Project". Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Archived from the original on 17 March 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ "Iran - Energy". Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Archived from the original on 2013-01-21. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ Editorial (2009-03-25). "Pain Iran Can Believe In". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2017-10-10. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
- ^ "Remarks by Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA)". Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Archived from the original on 29 May 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
- ^ Editorial (February 1, 2012). "Swift Sanctions on Iran". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2017-10-10. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
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- ^ "About Right Web". RightWeb. Archived from the original on 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
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External links
- Think tanks established in 2001
- 2001 establishments in Washington, D.C.
- Think tanks based in Washington, D.C.
- Foreign policy and strategy think tanks in the United States
- Political and economic think tanks in the United States
- Lobbying organizations based in Washington, D.C.
- Conservative organizations in the United States
- Neoconservatism
- Organisations designated as terrorist by Iran