Before Confirming Tulsi Gabbard, the Senate Must Read the Fine Print
OPINION — “To say it changed my life was an understatement; just every day being confronted with that heavy human cost of war…I was the brigade’s […] More
national security
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI): ‘Coordinated Orchestra’ or ‘Loveless Marriage’?
DEEP DIVE – The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is a relatively recent addition to the institutional architecture of the U.S. Intelligence […] More
A Personal Message of Thanks from The Cipher Brief
A PERSONAL MESSAGE / OPINION — In this space that’s normally reserved for world-class reporting and analysis of global security issues, we thought we’d do […] More
Pete Hegseth’s Views of the Military – and the World
OPINION — “I think we are at an existential moment. I’m not trying to be hyperbolic here when it comes to the DoD (Defense Department). I […] More
The Latest
Undersea Sabotage Threatens Cables Connecting the World
EXPERT INTERVIEW — Deep in the Baltic Sea, two undersea fiber-optic telecommunications cables — linking Finland to Germany and Sweden to Lithuania — were severed this week. Several […] More
Memo to the 47th President: The Psychology of America’s Adversaries Matters
MEMO TO THE PRESIDENT — Since Donald Trump’s victory in the November 5 election, The Cipher Brief has reached out to our network of experts for their thoughts […] More
Assessing US Recruitment: The Military V. Pete Hegseth
OPINION — “The U.S. Army Recruiting Command exceeded our fiscal year 2024 recruiting mission, with more than 55,000 future soldiers going to basic combat training. Additionally, […] More
The World Trump Will Face: No Stability Here
OPINION — The so-called “Axis of Authoritarian” states – Russia, China, Iran and North Korea – pose an immediate threat to the international world order. […] More
How Trump 2.0 May Deal With Global Flashpoints
DEEP DIVE – As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, the U.S. faces an unusually broad set of global security challenges: wars […] More
How To Think in—and About—a Post-Analytic World
OPINION — In 1990, the world was on the cusp of a major transformation. The bifurcated, static and hierarchical Cold War era was giving way to […] More
Advice for Trump 2.0: Cipher Brief Experts Weigh In
EXPERT PERSPECTIVES — In the hours after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election, we turned to our network of experts for […] More
Decoding Global Reactions to Trump’s Victory
DEEP DIVE — It was, as Axios reporter Zachary Basu put it, “the most astonishing, gravity-defying comeback in the history of American politics.” But Donald Trump’s […] More
Global Challenges for 47th President: Two Major Wars, and Avoiding Conflict With China
EXPERT OPINION — As Americans vote, and an anxious nation awaits the results, we turned to a member of our expert network with extensive global […] More
In Next President’s Inbox: 10 Global Nightmares
SPECIAL REPORT – As a divided nation hurtles towards the election, and officials worry about politically-driven violence, potential nightmares abound for the next commander-in-chief. Put […] More
A High-level Briefing on Russia for the next U.S. President
EXPERT OPINION – Dear 47th President of the United States, congratulations on your victory and thank you for your willingness to serve as the leader […] More
How to Save a Government: Remember 9/11 – and ‘Join the Team’
OPINION — Where were you two weeks after September 11th? No one ever asks this question, but it’s the one I answer in my mind when […] More
Why Mental Health Is Now a National Security Issue
OPINION — I recently had the privilege of attending the first annual “REAL Summit: The Intersection of Finance and Mental Health,” a 2-day conference in New […] More
The Axis of Authoritarians – and A Dangerous World
OPINION — The October 1 debate between Senators Tim Walz and JD Vance dealt with just one foreign policy question: the widening war in the Middle […] More
What Analysts Missed Before Russia’s Invasion – and What They’re Still Missing
EXPERT OPINION — A recent report from Washington’s Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) is getting attention for calling out the failure of the […] More