As the second Trump Administration took office, it found a Middle East landscape that had been transformed dramatically in the last year alone. Nowhere is […]More
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT — The U.S. is facing an onslaught from adversaries in cyberspace, and while conversations about the response has focused on bolstering cybersecurity […]More
EXPERT INTERVIEWS — While the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has long counted the United States among its most generous and loyal members, many NATO nations […]More
DEEP DIVE — Nearly three years into its costly war against Ukraine, Russia’s economy is faltering under the strain of sanctions, inflation, and high borrowing costs. […]More
This is part three in a three-part series by Cipher Brief Expert and former Assistant Director of CIA for South and Central Asia Dave Pitts, who also […]More
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT – Before the Trump administration takes office, the President-elect and his team have made two major pronouncements regarding the war in […]More
Madness of Courage earns a prestigious 4 out of 4 trench coats
This Week’s Dead Drop: February 7
KILLING HIM SOFTLY? Tucker Carlson, seemingly the only former Fox News performer without an assignment in the new administration, made some news recently by saying on his podcast that “The Biden administration did, they tried to kill Putin. Carlson went on to say: “That’s demented, that you would even think of something like that. So why were they? Because chaos is a screen that protects them.” Who would believe such a claim? While we doubt they believed it, the Russian news agency TASS was happy to repeat it along with an additional claim that former [...]More
Join us for the second annual Cipher Brief Honors Dinner, the evening of Friday April 18, 2025. This Black-Tie event is invite only, please apply […]More
It used to be something of a national security secret: identifying the ways in which U.S. adversaries are working to undermine U.S. stability, sow chaos […]More
SUBSCRIBER+ VIRTUAL BRIEFING– Wednesday, August 28 at 1p ET with Cipher Brief Experts General Frank McKenzie (Ret.) and Dave Pitts, Former Assistant Director of CIA for […]More
SUBSCRIBER+ VIRTUAL BRIEFING – Join us Friday, June 28 for an Exclusive Briefing on the mounting crisis between Taiwan and China. Cipher Brief Experts Amb. […]More
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June 28th, 2024
Podcasts
State Secrets
In this conversation, Mike Vigil discusses the recent designation of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, a move he says is largely symbolic with little real impact on the cartels' operations. He highlights the complexities of U.S.-Mexico relations, the ongoing fentanyl crisis, and the risks of military escalation. Vigil also offers advice for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on addressing drug trafficking in Central America, stressing the importance of creating alliances and addressing the broader issues of drug production and trafficking.
Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment
Hal Brands, a renowned expert on global affairs, talks with us about his new book: “The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World. Brands argues that Eurasia’s strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today’s world. We will talk with him about what can be learned from Eurasian wars of the past century and the implications of those lessons for the next.
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