Middle East

The Cipher Brief reached out to Dr. Geoff Porter, the founder of North Africa Risk Consulting, to get his take on security trends in Mali […] More

The Cipher Brief spoke with Kathleen McChesney about hotel and personal security in the wake of the attack against the Radisson Hotel in Bamako, Mali. […] More

Osama bin Laden would be a happy man were he still alive. His hopes and dreams have seemingly come to fruition. And, the master plan […] More

Here’s the wicked paradox about terrorism. Long-term responses do nothing about short-term dangers. Short-term reactions feed extremism over the long term. There are no quick […] More

This weekend, the international talks on Syria will reconvene in Vienna, and a main focus will be the creation of a list of rebel groups […] More

As the world reacts with horror to Friday’s terror attack in Paris coming so shortly after the downing of the Russian-operated A321M over the Sinai, […] More

Dr. Sebastian Gorka, an expert in counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and irregular warfare, told The Cipher Brief that ISIS has superseded al-Qaeda as the world’s leading jihadist […] More

“We have contained them.”  Those words from U.S. President Barack Obama about the status of ISIS came the day before the Paris terrorist attacks and […] More

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, U.S. defense officials announced a rare military strike on a senior Islamic State group (ISG) leader in Libya. […] More

Osama bin Laden would be a happy man were he still alive. His hopes and dreams have seemingly come to fruition. And, the master plan […] More

As a former official of the Palestinian Authority, Ghaith Al-Omari continues to follow developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a senior fellow at the Washington […] More

Security is of upmost importance to Israel in the extremely volatile Middle East.  Yaakov Perry spent nearly 30 years in Shin Bet, rising through the […] More

While the recent uptick in violence in Israel has been attributed to disagreements regarding the Jerusalem holy site known as Temple Mount by Israelis, or […] More

Regardless of the turbulence weathered over the past year, the U.S.-Israel relationship has never been stronger. Don’t be deceived by the political optics used to […] More

Contrary to most expectations – particularly outside of the United States, where suspicions about U.S. motives abound – the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and […] More

Despite the fanfare over the recently reached Iran deal, Tehran remains a bad actor. Iran recently tested a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead […] More

The Iranian people have been waiting for economic relief for many years. U.S. and international sanctions placed against Iran for its nuclear pursuit had a […] More

The Cipher Brief spoke with Adam Smith, Of Counsel at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, about how the lifting of nuclear related sanctions against Iran will […] More