[11][12] In the initial documents filed for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service, FDD's stated mission was to "provide education to enhance Israel's image in North America and the public's understanding of issues affecting Israeli-Arab relations".

[19] According to a 2019 article in The Atlantic, "no place else has made an institutional specialty of recommending hard-line Iran policies and offering detailed proposals for how to implement them the way the FDD has done".

[25] 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.

[27] Qatar appeared to be in compliance with the terms of the agreement for countering terrorism and not supporting extremists from its territory according to the report published by The Washington Post in February 2021.

"[44] 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.

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.

"[49] When it was announced in October 2021 that President Joe Biden's top diplomat for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, was stepping down, Bill Roggio of the FDD said, "It is about time he stopped stealing money from the US government.

In 2017, journalist Bari Weiss of The New York Times reported on dissent within the organization over the pro-Trump orientation it adopted following the 2016 elections, which included at least two employees leaving.

[61] 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[62] which, according to its mission statement, seeks to "check the militaristic drift of the country".

[63] In 2023, FDD, along with other US-based think tanks, was alleged to be coordinating a pressure campaign against the regional rivals of the UAE, including Iran, Qatar, and Turkey.

Bail, professor of sociology, public policy and data science at Duke University, describes FDD as an "anti-Muslim fringe organization" that has tried to establish itself as a legitimate authority on Islam and terrorism by tactically using "ethnic experts" —i.e.