Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

cipherbrief

Welcome! Log in to stay connected and make the most of your experience.

Input clean

Books

Want a Security Clearance? Stop Smoking Pot and Read This

Trust Me

Want a Security Clearance? Stop Smoking Pot and Read This

BOOK REVIEW: TRUST ME: A GUIDE TO SECRETS: WHO GETS THEM AND WHY WE HAVE SUCH A MIXED TRACK RECORD WITH THEMBy Lindy Kyzer / Post Hill PressReviewed [...] More

The Latest

A Cultural Autopsy of the Soviet Legacy

The Darkside of the Earth

A Cultural Autopsy of the Soviet Legacy

Book Review: The Dark Side of the Earth: Russia’s Short-lived Victory over Totalitarianism By Mikhail Zygar, ScribnerThe Reviewer —Jean-Thomas Nicole [...] More

Central Europe Survives: A Battlefield of Ideas Still Unfolding Today

Central Europe: The Death of a Civilization and the Life of an Idea

Central Europe Survives: A Battlefield of Ideas Still Unfolding Today

BOOK REVIEW: Central Europe: The Death of a Civilization and the Life of an IdeaBy Luka Ivan Jukic / Hurst & Co.Reviewed by: Jean-Thomas NicoleThe [...] More

Realism and Rivals: McCloskey’s The Persian Rings True

Realism and Rivals: McCloskey’s The Persian Rings True

BOOK REVIEW: The Persian: A NovelBy David McCloskey/ W.W. NortonReviewed by: Joe ZacksThe Reviewer: Joe Zacks is the Co-founder and Managing Partner [...] More

Does the Arctic Have an Unfrozen Future?

Does the Arctic Have an Unfrozen Future?

BOOK REVIEW: UNFROZEN: THE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE OF THE ARCTICBy Mia Bennett and Klaus Dodds / Yale University PressReviewed by: Jean-Thomas NicoleThe [...] More

Behind the Mask: The Politics of Hidden Intervention

Covert Action

Behind the Mask: The Politics of Hidden Intervention

BOOK REVIEW: COVERT ACTION: NATIONAL APPROACHES TO UNACKNOWLEDGED INTERVENTIONBy Magda Long (Editor, Contributor), Rory Cormac (Editor, Contributor), [...] More

Courage and Betrayal in the Heart of Hitler's Germany

The Traitor's Circle

Courage and Betrayal in the Heart of Hitler's Germany

BOOK REVIEW: THE TRAITORS CIRCLE: The True Story of a Secret Resistance Network in Nazi Germany – and the Spy Who Betrayed ThemBy Jonathan Freedland [...] More

How Dictators Evade Justice — and Why It Still Works: Philippe Sands’ 38 Londres Street

How Dictators Evade Justice — and Why It Still Works: Philippe Sands’ 38 Londres Street

BOOK REVIEW: 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in PatagoniaBy Philippe Sands / KnopfReviewed by: Jean-Thomas NicoleThe [...] More

The Nuclear Age: How the Quest for the Bomb Redefined Power — and Still Shapes Today’s Global Order

The Nuclear Age: How the Quest for the Bomb Redefined Power — and Still Shapes Today’s Global Order

BOOK REVIEW: THE NUCLEAR AGE: AN EPIC RACE FOR ARMS, POWER, AND SURVIVALBy Serhii Plokhy / W.W. NortonReviewed by: Michael J. ArdThe Reviewer: [...] More

High On Hype – A Tabloid Take On Delta Force and Drugs

The Fort Bragg Cartel

High On Hype – A Tabloid Take On Delta Force and Drugs

BOOK REVIEW: THE FORT BRAGG CARTEL: DRUG TRAFFICKING AND MURDER IN THE SPECIAL FORCESBy Seth Harp / VikingReviewed by: Anna M. Gielas, PhDThe [...] More

A Call at 4AM in Israel: Crucial Decisions, Urgent Reading

A Call at 4AM

A Call at 4AM in Israel: Crucial Decisions, Urgent Reading

BOOK REVIEW: A Call at 4 AM: Thirteen Prime Ministers and the Crucial Decisions that Shaped Israeli Politics, 2025,By Amit Segal / Post Hill [...] More

Checkmate, Comrade: Espionage, Surveillance, and the Quiet Rebellion over the Chess Board

Spy's Mate

Checkmate, Comrade: Espionage, Surveillance, and the Quiet Rebellion over the Chess Board

BOOK REVIEW: Spy’s Mate, A NovelBy Brad Buchanan / Thinkers PublishingReviewed by: Jean-Thomas NicoleThe Reviewer — Jean-Thomas Nicole is a Policy [...] More

A Resounding Reaffirmation of Diplomacy

Great Power Diplomacy

A Resounding Reaffirmation of Diplomacy

BOOK REVIEW: Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to KissingerBy A. Wess Mitchell / Princeton University Press – Oct [...] More