The Cipher Brief

Endless Warfare – Part II: Countering Endless Warfare and its Networks

Winning tomorrow’s conflicts means countering the persistent networks, cognitive warfare, and gray-zone strategies already targeting America today.

U.S. Military Launches Operation Epic Fury Attacking Iran

Author’s Note: This article is not about ‘endless wars’ as a critique of U.S. military interventions — that debate belongs elsewhere. It examines a [...] More

The Open Source Report

Expert Insights

Cipher Brief Experts bring context to today’s global events

If You Can Run a Spy, You Can Run AI

If You Can Run a Spy, You Can Run AI

Generative AI should be managed like a human source: useful, fast, sometimes brilliant, sometimes wrong, and never a substitute for disciplined [...] More

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NIC OF TIME? The National Intelligence Council, the intelligence community’s traditional home for big-picture analysis, may need a new crystal ball. Politico reports that NIC Chair Andrew Byers quietly departed last week, just days after acting DNI Bill Pulte reportedly showed nearly two dozen NIC staffers the door. The move follows the ouster of senior ODNI official Will Ruger and marks another turbulent chapter for an organization intended to be the intelligence community’s premier analytic shop. Interestingly, not only was Byer’s departure quiet…apparently his arrival was as well. It seems he was sworn in as Deputy [...] More

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How will wars be fought in the next decade—and is the United States prepared?

In this exclusive conversation, The Cipher Brief CEO Suzanne Kelly sits down with General David Petraeus to examine the sweeping transformation reshaping modern warfare. Drawing on his repeated visits to Ukraine alongside The Cipher Brief, General Petraeus argues that the battlefield has changed more dramatically in the last three years than at any point in modern military history.

From artificial intelligence and autonomous systems to drone swarms and machine-speed decision making, Petraeus explains why the war in Ukraine has become the world's most important laboratory for military innovation—and why the United States and its allies must move far more quickly to adapt.

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