Four weeks into Operation Epic Fury, with airstrikes having killed a sitting supreme leader, wiped out scores of top military and intelligence [...] More

07 April, 2026

Hollie McKay

07 April, 2026

Ryan Simons

Middle East Iran

The Open Source Report

Vessels pass through Strait of Hormuz following US-Iran ceasefire

Global Intelligence Report for Thursday, April 9, 2026

Ceasefire unsteady as Trump says U.S. military to stay around, Iran threatens to shut Strait

Israeli strikes pummel Lebanon, killing 250 amid ceasefire confusion and international backlash

Trump team explores punishment for NATO countries that didn’t support Iran war

UK deployed military to deter Russian submarines from its waters

Access Today’s Report

Expert Insights

Cipher Brief Experts bring context to today’s global events

America’s Drone Strategy Has a Supply Chain Problem

OPINION — In this issue we will discuss implications of the Drone Dominance Program, how weakness in the U.S. industrial base has been laid bare, and how the war with Iran could benefit our adversaries. Private capital [...] More

09 April, 2026

Joey Gagnard

09 April, 2026

Ryan Simons

Joey Gagnard

Drones Are Changing Warfare And America Isn’t Ready

OPINION — Drones in Ukraine and in the War with Iran have made the surface of the earth a contested space. The U.S. has discovered that 1) air superiority and missile defense systems (THAAD, Patriot batteries) designed to [...] More

09 April, 2026

Steve Blank

09 April, 2026

Ryan Simons

Americas North America United States

News & Analysis

Can the U.S. Win the Critical Minerals Competition?

What U.S. national security interest binds Greenland, Argentina, the Congo, and the Cook Islands? What was the impetus for the recent “strategic [...] More

02 April, 2026

Tom Nagorski

02 April, 2026

Ryan Simons

United States Americas North America

The Chalk Mark Still Matters: Russian Espionage Handling in the Modern Era

KREMLIN FILES: A brush of a hand against a park bench with chalk; or, a piece of electrical tape left on a mailbox. Sometimes it’s a coded phrase [...] More

31 March, 2026

Sean Wiswesser

31 March, 2026

Ryan Simons

KREMLIN FILES: A brush of a hand against a park bench with chalk; or, a piece of electrical tape left on a mailbox. Sometimes it’s a coded phrase [...] More

31 March, 2026

Sean Wiswesser

31 March, 2026

Ryan Simons

Blockade by Permission: How Iran Determines Who Gets Through Hormuz

For roughly two weeks, the Karachi, a Pakistani-flagged Aframax tanker loaded with crude at Das Island in Abu Dhabi, sat waiting for a signal that [...] More

30 March, 2026

Hollie McKay

30 March, 2026

Ryan Simons

For roughly two weeks, the Karachi, a Pakistani-flagged Aframax tanker loaded with crude at Das Island in Abu Dhabi, sat waiting for a signal that [...] More

30 March, 2026

Hollie McKay

30 March, 2026

Ryan Simons

Middle East Iran

Ukrainian drone operators in Zaporizhzhia direction

From Kyiv’s Skies to the Persian Gulf: How Ukraine’s Drone Technology Is Reshaping Global Defense

As Iranian-designed Shahed drones struck critical infrastructure across the Persian Gulf in early March, military planners in Washington confronted [...] More

25 March, 2026

Hollie McKay

25 March, 2026

Ryan Simons

Europe Ukraine

Opinion

Why a War in the Middle East Is Hitting Australians at the Petrol Pump

Why a War in the Middle East Is Hitting Australians at the Petrol Pump

OPINION – Economic insulation is no longer guaranteed by geography. Australia is nevertheless very vulnerable to geopolitical unrest in the Middle [...] More

03 April, 2026

Sami Omari

03 April, 2026

Ryan Simons

Alternative Perspectives

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Inside Russian Intelligence: CIA Insider on Putin’s Playbook, Ukraine & the Next War

ISIS Reawakens: Bondi Beach Attack Signals a New Terror Threat

On the Front Lines of NATO: How Lithuania Sees the Iran War, Russia—and What Comes Next

Former CIA Officer on Iran War, Joe Kent’s Resignation & Rising Threats to the U.S. Homeland

Book Reviews

Putin's Dangerous, Corrupt, and Often Incompetent Spies

Finally, a Taiwan Strategy That Goes Beyond "Do Something"

Thus Spoke Henry Kissinger

The Best National Security Gossip

TAVAJJOH, TAVAJJOH – IS THIS THING ON? The Cold War called. It wanted its tradecraft back. It seems that some twelve hours after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, a male voice appeared on shortwave frequency 7910 kHz, reading strings of random numbers in Farsi, punctuated by tavajjoh – "attention" – repeated three times. The broadcast - catalogued as V32 by the hobbyist monitoring group ENIGMA2000 on April 4, is believed to be the first newly identified voice numbers station in nearly a decade. Priyom.org, another radio monitoring enthusiast group, says they have pinpointed the signal [...] More

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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

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31 March, 2026

31 March, 2026

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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.

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