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News & Analysis

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-CONFLICT-POLITICS

After the War and After Putin: Three Potential Succession Scenarios for Russia’s Modern Tsar

THE KREMLIN FILES / COLUMN — Recent weeks have seen seismic shifts in the world’s authoritarian landscape: from the dramatic removal of Venezuela’s [...] More

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The National Guard In Mexico Conducts An Operation Following The Death Of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, "El Mencho," Leader Of The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, At The Hands Of Federal Forces

Killing Mencho

Exactly who tracked El Mencho, the world’s most wanted and feared drug lord, to a heavily armed safe house in a remote Sierra Madre town is a secret, [...] More

Tracing the Evolution of Russian Hybrid Warfare

Tracing the Evolution of Russian Hybrid Warfare

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 did not emerge from a strategic vacuum. It was the culmination of over a decade of [...] More

Washington’s Venezuelan Gamble: The Old Guard’s Continued Grip on Power

Washington’s Venezuelan Gamble: The Old Guard’s Continued Grip on Power

More than six weeks after United States special forces extracted Nicolás Maduro from Caracas, Venezuela remains under the control of the same [...] More

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

Inside the High-Stakes U.S. Pressure Campaign on Iran

Inside the High-Stakes U.S. Pressure Campaign on Iran

EXPERT INTERVIEW – U.S. officials say a second aircraft carrier will be deployed to the Middle East amid the administration’s efforts to pressure [...] More

Russia’s Promises of Security Lead to Ukraine's Frontlines

Russia’s Promises of Security Lead to Ukraine's Frontlines

DEEP DIVE — Moscow has spent nearly four years burning through human resources in Ukraine, and now they’ve found a new way to fill the gaps of loss: [...] More

The Former Head of NSA on the Future of U.S. Cybersecurity

The Former Head of NSA on the Future of U.S. Cybersecurity

EXPERT INTERVIEW -- General Paul Nakasone (ret.) has spent a career at the very center of America's most invisible battlefields. He has served as [...] More

The Kremlin Files: Russian Double Agents and Operational Games

The Kremlin Files: Russian Double Agents and Operational Games

THE KREMLIN FILES / COLUMN — There are similarities among intelligence agencies worldwide. All professional services rely on tradecraft to recruit [...] More

Export Controls Backfire: The China Innovation Paradox

Export Controls Backfire: The China Innovation Paradox

DEEP DIVE — When the Biden administration rolled out its semiconductor export restrictions in October 2022, the logic seemed airtight: cut off [...] More

China’s Stunning Military Purge – and What It Means For Taiwan

China’s Stunning Military Purge – and What It Means For Taiwan

DEEP DIVE – President Xi Jinping’s latest purge of generals has eviscerated China’s military leadership, drawn comparisons to crackdowns carried out [...] More

Russia’s War Economy Lifeline: Inside the Sanctions Evasion Network

Russia’s War Economy Lifeline: Inside the Sanctions Evasion Network

DEEP DIVE — Nearly three years into the most comprehensive sanctions regime ever imposed on a significant economy, Russia’s defense industrial base [...] More

Two men in a serious conversation, one in a suit, the other in a military uniform.

The Kremlin Files: Russia’s Way to the Gray Zone

THE KREMLIN FILES / COLUMN — Russian hybrid warfare, often referred to in the West as “gray zone” conflict, has transitioned from theoretical concept [...] More