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North America

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

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The 2026 National Defense Strategy: No Surprises but Plenty of Mandate

OPINION — The 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS) follows closely the 2025 National Security Strategy, as it should. It also falls in line with the [...] More

The Long Arc Of American Power

OPINION — “We [the U.S.] began as a sliver of a country and next thing you know we're a continental power, and we did not do that primarily through [...] More

What It Means Now that Fentanyl is Designated a “WMD”

OPINION — “There's no doubt that America's adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States in part because they want to kill Americans. [...] More

We Need More Than Just a Command Shakeup in the U.S. Military

EXPERT OPINION — Reports came out last week that claim the Chairman of Joint Staff, General Dan Caine, is preparing a new unified command plan (UCP) [...] More

Dear Mr. President: A Former CIA Officer’s Unvarnished Brief on Putin

Dear Mr. President:I am hoping you remember me. I spent about 90 minutes with you and much of your cabinet in the Oval Office in the spring of 2017, [...] More

The Challenges – and Opportunities – of a ‘Golden Dome’ Defense System

DEEP DIVE – Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to finish building a “Golden Dome” defense shield before the end of his term that would protect the nation [...] More

Arctic Worries: Melting Ice, and a Russia-China Partnership

Arctic Worries: Melting Ice, and a Russia-China Partnership

DEEP DIVE – As more Arctic ice melts and more avenues for navigation and commerce open up at the top of the world, there’s a geopolitical competition [...] More

Expert Q&A: The U.S. Takes On the Mexican Cartels

EXPERT INTERVIEW — The Trump administration is prioritizing going after Mexican drug cartels as a key national security objective. It has designated [...] More

The National Security Rationale for U.S.-Funded Academic Research 

OPINION — Since World War II, the federal government and American universities have developed a deep, symbiotic relationship. That relationship is [...] More

Can the CIA and U.S. military stop the Mexican cartels? 

Can the CIA and U.S. military stop the Mexican cartels? 

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING — On January 20, the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump formally labeled Mexico’s crime cartels as [...] More