Cliff May

Cliff May founded the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in 2001 in the weeks following the September 11 attacks, having recognized that the United States lacked an analytical institution focused specifically on the intersection of terrorism, Islamist ideology, and democratic security. A former foreign correspondent for The New York Times and former Communications Director of the Republican National Committee, May brought a journalist's instinct for clarity and a political professional's understanding of how ideas move through Washington institutions. He has led FDD as its founding president and chairman for more than two decades, overseeing the organization's emergence as the preeminent research institution on Iran policy, sanctions architecture, and the broader threat environment facing Israel and the democratic West.

May's own analytical contributions have focused on the ideological dimension of the Islamist threat — the conviction that terrorism and nuclear proliferation are symptoms of a broader hostile ideology that cannot be addressed through economic incentives or diplomatic engagement alone. This framework makes him a consistent voice for treating Iran not as a negotiating partner with addressable grievances but as an adversarial ideological power whose nuclear ambitions must be countered by force of law, sanctions, and ultimately military deterrence. His column, distributed through Scripps Howard, and his radio commentary have given FDD's analysis reach beyond the Washington policy audience into the broader conservative media ecosystem.

May works in close collaboration with Mark Dubowitz, FDD's CEO (Rank 24), whose sanctions architecture expertise complements May's strategic communications and ideological clarity. Together, they have made FDD more influential per dollar spent than almost any other foreign policy research institution in Washington. At Rank 72, May is the founding architect whose post-9/11 vision created the institution that has done more than any other think tank to build the intellectual case for treating Iran as an existential threat to Israel and to the democratic order.