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North America

Greenland’s Worth a Fight and Russia’s Trying to Start One

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — The “quickest way for Russia to penetrate our naval defenses is steaming from the Arctic to the North Atlantic.” The [...] More

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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

20 Years Later, Assessing the Value of the ODNI

20 Years Later, Assessing the Value of the ODNI

EXPERT INTERVIEWS — The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) marks an anniversary today — 20 years since its creation as the top [...] More

Expert Q&A: Winning the Recruiting and Retention Battle in the U.S. Military

EXPERT Q&A — Discussions about the future of war and whether the U.S. is ready for the next conflict often center on the adoption of advanced [...] More