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Clifford D. May is the President of the
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism created immediately following the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
Cliff May is also the Chairman of the Policy Committee of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), an international, non-partisan organization based in Washington D.C. comprised of leading members of the national security community.
Cliff May has had a long and distinguished career in international relations, journalism, communications and politics.
A veteran news reporter, foreign correspondent and editor (at The New York Times and other publications), Cliff May has covered stories in more than two dozen countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, China, Uzbekistan, Northern Ireland and Russia. Cliff May is a frequent guest on national and international television and radio news programs, providing analysis and participating in debates on national security issues. Cliff May writes a weekly column that is nationally distributed by Scripps Howard News Service and he is a regular contributor for National Review Online, The American Spectator and other publications.
In 2006 Cliff May was appointed to a Military and Security Working Group of the United States Institute of Peace, an independent nonpartisan national institution established and funded by Congress.
From 1997 to 2001, he served as the Director of Communications for the Republican National Committee. In that role, he was the Republican Party's staff spokesman, and appeared frequently on national television and radio programs. In addition, he managed all RNC communications activities, including long-range strategic planning; press, radio and television services; online services; TV and radio coaching; speech writing; advertising and marketing. He also served as the Editor of the official Republican magazine, Rising Tide.
After leaving the RNC, Cliff May was named Senior Managing Director in the Washington, D.C. office of Weber Shandwick, a firm specializing in public affairs advocacy, public relations and media relations.
Prior to coming to the RNC, Cliff May was the Associate Editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. While in Colorado, Mr. May hosted a talk radio program on the dominant station in the region, and produced and moderated an interview program on KRMA-TV (a PBS station). In addition, Cliff May served as host/moderator for the weekly, nationally distributed TCI cable television series, Race for the Presidency, which featured “resident analysts” Dick Lamm, Gary Hart and Don Hodel.
Before moving to Colorado Cliff May spent nearly a decade with The New York Times as a reporter in both New York and Washington, an editor of The New York Times Sunday Magazine and a foreign correspondent. He established the Times' West Africa bureau and, as Bureau Chief, covered more than a score of African nations.
Earlier in his career, Cliff May was the Roving Foreign Correspondent for Hearst newspapers, reporting from a variety of global hotspots. During that same period, Mr. May provided special coverage for CBS Radio News and Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS. Prior to that, Mr. May was Senior Editor of Geo Magazine, and an Associate Editor for international news at Newsweek.
Cliff May holds masters degrees from both Columbia University's School of Public and International Affairs and its School of Journalism. Cliff May earned his BA from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. In addition, he holds a certificate in Russian language and literature from the University of Leningrad.
By Cliff May (May 19, 2011)
Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. But homicidal tendencies are not evenly distributed throughout the general population. Criminals, crazies and terrorists pose a... more
By Cliff May (May 12, 2011)
Osama bin Laden sleeps with the fishes. His deputy, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad sleeps between clean sheets, eats three square meals a day and receives the same quality medical... more
By Cliff May (May 05, 2011)
It requires a keen sense of irony to write the headline Newsweek featured last week: “The Wrath of Abbas: Fed up with stalled peace talks, the Palestinian leader defies... more
By Cliff May (Apr 28, 2011)
I was north of Kandahar, flying in a helicopter with an American general who was telling me more than I could absorb about rural irrigation systems. I asked if he had ever... more
By Cliff May (Apr 21, 2011)
Were there an award for the worst idea produced in Washington in recent days, there would be many worthy competitors, but I think I’d put my money on this one: Granting... more
By Cliff May (Apr 14, 2011)
Oil is selling for close to $110 a barrel and gasoline for around $4 a gallon. Bad news for motorists. Marvelous news for jihadis.
Yet many of our elected leaders... more
By Cliff May (Apr 07, 2011)
The so-called International Community has justified military intervention in Libya on humanitarian grounds: Col. Moammar Qaddafi was threatening mass murder in Benghazi.... more
By Cliff May (Mar 24, 2011)
Readers of tea leaves, tarot cards and goat entrails may be able to predict the future. But prognostication is a skill few journalists, politicians, diplomats, and... more
By Cliff May (Mar 10, 2011)
It is a fact -- not an opinion -- that al-Qaeda and similar groups are waging what they call a jihad against America, Israel and the West. Also beyond dispute: These groups... more
By Cliff May (Mar 03, 2011)
Not long after achieving independence, the United States faced its first foreign threat: pirates off the coast of Africa seizing American merchant ships. As Michael Oren... more
By Cliff May (Feb 24, 2011)
Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen are in turmoil. In Libya, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi is using mercenaries to slaughter peaceful protestors. Hezbollah is staging a slow-motion coup in... more
By Cliff May (Feb 17, 2011)
In his remarks following the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last week, President Obama echoed the pro-democracy protestors in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. When he... more
By Cliff May (Feb 10, 2011)
Amid a harmattan of news, analysis and commentary blowing out of Egypt, one Twitter post stands out. An Israeli tweeted:
Dear Egyptian rioters,
Please don't... more
By Cliff May (Feb 03, 2011)
The upheaval in Egypt would be a dilemma for any American administration. But the policies President Obama has followed over the past two years have made his task more... more
By Cliff May (Jan 27, 2011)
Last week, Canada’s Free Thinking Film Society – love that name – was scheduled to screen Iranium, a new documentary about the regime that has ruled Iran since 1979, its... more
By Cliff May (Jan 20, 2011)
President Obama last week refuted – clearly and commendably - those who have been attempting to exploit the bloodbath in Tucson to smear conservative polemicists and... more
By Cliff May (Jan 13, 2011)
Imagine if Muslims in Europe were being arrested for nothing more than peacefully practicing their religion. Imagine if Muslims in South America were being sentenced to death... more
By Cliff May (Jan 06, 2011)
Last month, Americans celebrated the holidays without a terrorist attack on American soil. That should be a source of relief but not complacency. Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan,... more