Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

The Honors Awards
cipherbrief

Welcome! Log in to stay connected and make the most of your experience.

Input clean

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

Washington’s Venezuelan Gamble: The Old Guard’s Continued Grip on Power

Maduro’s capture removed the regime’s figurehead - but the system that kept him in power remains firmly intact.

Washington’s Venezuelan Gamble: The Old Guard’s Continued Grip on Power

DEEP DIVE — More than six weeks after United States special forces extracted Nicolás Maduro from Caracas, Venezuela remains under the control of the [...] More

AmericasNorth America
Open Source Report logo

The Open Source Report

<span>Global Intelligence Report for Friday, February 20, 2026</span>

Global Intelligence Report for Friday, February 20, 2026

NORAD scrambles aircraft in response to Russian warplanes off of Alaska

Britain blocking U.S. from using air bases for potential Iran strikes

Europe surpasses U.S. as primary backer of Ukraine’s war effort

As U.S. mulls Iran strikes, Trump declines to make clear case for why, or why now


Access Today’s Report

Expert Insights

Cipher Brief Experts bring context to today’s global events

Evelyn Farkas on Alliances, Ukraine, and China’s Growing Challenge

Suzanne Kelly

EXPERT INTERVIEW — Evelyn Farkas has spent decades working at the center of U.S. national security and transatlantic defense policy. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, she now [...] More

UkraineEuropeExpert View

Defending the Homeland: Pentagon Shifts Strategy on Drone Threats

Walter Pincus

OPINION — “This memorandum consolidates approximately ten separate outdated memoranda that were inadequate to address the current, complex unmanned aircraft system (UAS) threat environment. The new guidance affects a [...] More

Walter PincusFine Print
View More ›

News & Analysis

How Cuba's Infrastructure Crisis Is Opening the Door to Foreign Intelligence Networks

How Cuba's Infrastructure Crisis Is Opening the Door to Foreign Intelligence Networks

DEEP DIVE — On February 13, nighttime light emissions across major Cuban cities had dropped as much as 50 percent compared to historical averages — [...] More

AmericasNorth America

Opinion

EU Takes Aim at Tehran: IRGC Terror Listing Opens New Front in Europe’s Iran Policy

Michael Jacobson

EU Takes Aim at Tehran: IRGC Terror Listing Opens New Front in Europe’s Iran Policy

OPINION — On January 29, Europe found its voice against Iran’s apparatus of terror. The European Union (EU) announced that it is adding Iran’s [...] More

Middle EastEuropeAlternative Perspectives

What’s on The Cipher Brief’s Digital Channel

Book Reviews

The Gray Man’s Back—And the Body Count’s Rising
The Gray Man’s Back—And the Body Count’s Rising

Putin’s Long Shadow Over Post-Soviet Russia
Putin’s Long Shadow Over Post-Soviet Russia

The Architects of CIA Analysis
The Architects of CIA Analysis

dead dropdead drop

The Best National Security Gossip

WHAT WOULD PETRAEUS SAY? — More than 195K people (and counting) have now watched The Cipher Brief’s YouTube interview with former CIA Director General David Petraeus (Ret.). We caught up with the general in Munich earlier this month at the Munich Security Conference, just after he stepped off the train from Ukraine, (where he’s traveled some nine times since Russia’s full-scale invasion). In our very popular conversation, Gen. Petraeus offered new insights into Ukraine’s drone program, with an eye toward both the innovation that continues to happen in the battlespace (particularly in the no man’s land along the border) as [...] More

Get The Drop

Events

Live Events

The Cipher Brief 2026 HONORS Awards

The Cipher Brief 2026 HONORS Awards

Join us for the third annual Cipher Brief Honors Dinner, the evening of March 13, 2026. This Black-Tie event is invite only, please apply here for a [...] More

Upcoming: 13 March, 2026

Podcasts

State Secrets



Former CIA Chiefs of Station Ralph Goff and Glenn Corn have spent a lot of time on the ground in Ukraine. In this State Secrets podcast episode, they share details on what they’re seeing there now that isn’t making the headlines. Get the raw reporting with Goff and Corn in this special edition of the State Secrets Podcast.

Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment


David McCloskey, former CIA Analyst turned novelist is out with his fourth book, The Persian, about an Iranian dentist who is recruited by Mossad to take on a dangerous mission inside Iran. Cover Stories Host Suzanne Kelly digs in on how McCloskey’s real-life Intelligence background fueled his latest novel, and discovers a few of McCloskey’s own secrets along the way.