International

Is ISIS Islamic?  Probably not.  Is it Islamist?  Definitely.  An Islamist is one who believes in a version of Islam which would impose a politicized […] More

Latin American countries have a long history of swift regime change, either by coup or by legitimate institutional processes. The impetus is typically economic decline. […] More

Among Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s array of foreign policy positions is the suggestion that South Korea and Japan develop nuclear weapons for their own security […] More

North Korea’s nuclear saber rattling is raising concerns about further proliferation in the region.  There is a risk that should they feel sufficiently threatened by […] More

The Cipher Brief: Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have the technical ability to pursue nuclear weapons, but all three have refrained. What conditions would have […] More

At 11:00 AM, five years ago Monday, sailors on the USS Carl Vinson watched the shrouded body of Osama bin Laden slide into the North […] More

Five years ago, U.S. special operations forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid on his hiding place in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Although al Qaeda had […] More

The Pentagon announced Friday that U.S. forces have killed Abu Sayed, the leader of ISIS-Khorasan – ISIS’ affiliate in Afghanistan – in a drone strike […] More

Vice President Joe Biden touched down in Iraq on Thursday for a surprise visit to the country as it faces a deepening political crisis that […] More

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the new frontier for cyber attacks, a crime that costs the world up to $575 billion a year, […] More

Online hackers are increasingly targeting Latin America, with Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico most at risk. The Cipher Brief talked with Pablo Dubois, a data center […] More

The number of cyber attacks in Latin America is increasing. Will citizens, governments, and private entities be able to deal with this growing threat landscape? […] More

The two Trumps were on display Wednesday talking about foreign policy and national security. Neither made much sense. “The Cipher Brief has become the most […] More

A major conference on chemical security kicks off next week in Europe amid alarming reports of chlorine-filled barrel bombs dropped by the Syrian government and […] More

Beijing’s “Great Wall of Sand” in the South China Sea is likely to expand: a recent report in the South China Morning Post unveiled China’s […] More

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is an ideological military force that, since its creation, has been involved in virtually every facet of Iranian politics, […] More

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was formed shortly after the 1979 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi. According to the Iranian Constitution, […] More

On April 15, Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, traveled to Moscow for talks with Russian political and military officials regarding the […] More