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The Cipher Brief: National Security news, analysis and expert commentary.

Pakistan: Broker of Peace While Still at War

War with Afghanistan, instability in Iran, and tensions with India are converging into a regional crisis that Islamabad may struggle to contain.

TOPSHOT-AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN-CONFLICT

Just a few weeks ago, Pakistan, the host for fragile ceasefire talks aiming to end the war between the U.S. and Iran, was at war with Afghanistan in [...] More

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The Open Source Report

MADRID, SPAIN - APRIL 2026: Spanish flag in Plaza de Colon ( Columbus Square ) , the largest flag raised in Spain on April 1, 2026 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Cristina Arias/Cover/Getty Images)

Global Intelligence Report for Friday, April 24, 2026

Pentagon email reportedly floats suspending Spain from NATO, other steps over Iran rift

Trump says Israel and Lebanon have agreed to 3-week ceasefire

White House accuses China of industrial-scale theft of AI technology

Chinese satellites over Mideast battlefield put U.S. on edge


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Expert Insights

Cipher Brief Experts bring context to today’s global events

The Pentagon’s $54 Billion Bet on Autonomous Warfare

Paul Miller

OPINION — The Department of Defense does not always announce structural shifts loudly; often, it buries them in the dense columns of budget lines where only the most attentive analysts can find the seismic activity. The [...] More

Anthropic Mythos - We’ve Opened Pandora's Box

Steve Blank

EXPERT OPINION -- For a decade the cybersecurity community was predicting a cyber apocalypse tied to a single event - the day a Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer could run Shor’s algorithm and break the [...] More

News & Analysis

Iranian president meets with Putin, discusses ways to boost cooperation in all sectors

What Iran Is Learning from Russia’s War and Why the U.S. Should Be Concerned

KREMLIN FILES/COLUMN: The war in Ukraine is often framed by optimistic academics, and some policymakers as a cautionary tale—an example of how [...] More

Opinion

America’s Cyber Strategy Has a Budget Problem

OPINION – The threat from cyberattacks has never been more acute, but there is reason to worry America is not rising to the challenge. It is not the [...] More

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Book Reviews

EX-BRAZILIAN SPY CHIEF EX-DETAINEE: Just as the Dead Drop was reporting last week that fugitive former Brazilian intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem had been nabbed by ICE agents in Orlando, he was apparently already on his way out the door. BBC reported on April 16 that Ramagem was quietly released from custody. ICE originally confirmed the detention but as far as we know has offered no explanation for either the arrest or the release. Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, a U.S. resident, announced the news on social media, thanking President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for "the sensitivity with which they dealt with [...] More

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Events

Live Events

2026 Threat Conference

2026 Threat Conference

The Cipher Brief Threat Conference is the nation’s premier forum for non-partisan discussion of global threats and solutions as well as high-level [...] More

Upcoming: 25 October, 2026

Podcasts

State Secrets


In this episode of State Secrets, former CIA Senior Operations Officer Sean Wiswesser examines the evolution of Russian intelligence - from Soviet-era tradecraft to modern hybrid warfare. He unpacks Moscow’s strategic mindset, its transactional relationships with partners like Iran, and its enduring focus on weakening democratic systems. With insights drawn from decades in the field, Wiswesser explains what most people misunderstand about Russia - and why that matters now more than ever.