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- The Cipher Brief Open Source Report for Monday, January 30, 2023
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Members Only What Japan’s Massive Defense Investment Means for the World
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT: Japan’s new security strategy is bringing unprecedented change to its military policy and is introducing a new dynamic for global collective […] More
Members Only What a World Rife with Volatility Means for the Energy Market
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — The new year is bringing new concerns for the energy market and what that might mean for broader national security moving forward. […] More
Members Only Can Russia’s Military Recover in Ukraine?
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — As the Russian war against Ukraine enters its 11th month, Moscow has fallen dramatically short of the military goals it set out last […] More
Members Only A Coming Year of Change in the Middle East
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — Change is a constant in the Middle East as the past several months have demonstrated with focused attention on protests in Iran, […] More
Members Only Russia’s Wounded Economy — How Bad is it?
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — The European Union has made its long-awaited decision to cap Russian crude oil at $60 per barrel and to prevent European companies from shipping […] More
Each week, we deliver tidbits of national security gossip for our members.
This Week’s Dead Drop: January 27
YOU DON’T WRITE, YOU DON’T CALL… Last week, the Kremlin issued an oddly plaintive statement suggesting they kind of miss hearing from CIA Director Bill Burns. The TASS news agency quoted Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), as saying that a meeting with Burns would be “useful” and “possible” but gave no indication that one was in the offing. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "It can't be ruled out, and of course this kind of dialogue makes sense ... I don't know about exact dates." Normally you don’t see officials, especially Russian officials, sending out such “please call” messages especially to the CIA. The SVR RSVP was issued shortly before word leaked that Burns had secretly met with [...]
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Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has suggested that a Russian defeat in Ukraine could lead to nuclear war. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has [...] More
OPINION — For much of the first two years of the Biden administration, U.S. interest in the Western Hemisphere understandably took a back seat to [...] More
OPINION — On-going mass protests in Iran and Israel have taken a contrasting view on religious nationalism and the role of political Islam and religious [...] More
OPINION — It’s time for the U.S. to drop denuclearization of the Korean peninsula as its goal and begin to deal with North Korea as [...] More
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Former CIA Chief of Station
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Director of The Intelligence Project at Harvard University's Belfer Center
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Kevin Hulbert
Former CIA Chief Of Station