What will follow the year of ISIS’ Resurrection?
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT — Two utterly different events, in two very different parts of the world, have raised fresh concerns about a return to […] More
North America
Why Greenland Matters: Natural Resources – and ‘Location, Location, Location’
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — When The Cipher Brief looked at the global security landscape for 2025, Greenland didn’t rate a mention. That was probably true of new […] More
‘Straight Talk’ on China’s Offensives in the American Homeland
EXPERT VIEW — 2024 has brought multiple reminders of the threats – real and potential – posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Over the […] More
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
The Latest
Inside Iran’s Alleged Plots to Kill Donald Trump
DEEP DIVE — For years, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has tried and failed at all sorts of half-baked schemes to eliminate enemies living in […] 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
Former US Commander: Future Global Policies ‘Being Written In Ukraine’
EXPERT INTERVIEW — In the week since Donald Trump’s election victory, the world has been speculating and preparing – in some cases with high anxiety […] 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
Ukraine is Facing a Brutal Winter and a New U.S. President
DEEP DIVE — As battlefield setbacks mount, not even the weather is cooperating with Ukraine, which is forecast to have a colder-than-normal winter – its third […] More
On Eve of US Election, ‘High Alert’ and Cautious Optimism on Foreign Interference
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS — In the final days of one of the most consequential U.S. presidential campaigns in memory, outside threats to the election remain a high […] More
A Fight for the Future of US Special Operations Forces
OPINION — “If the numbers are what they are, then we need to man SOF (Special Operations Forces) to the numbers we can man to […] More
US Intelligence: Russia, China and Iran in Election Propaganda Blitz
DEEP DIVE — As Election Day 2024 draws near, the United States’ adversaries are bombarding American voters with propaganda and false narratives in unprecedented scope and […] More
Pentagon Leaders Say the Budget Process Hurts National Security. They’re Right.
OPINION — “The stark truth is that these short-term, temporary funding measures create uncertainty throughout the U.S. military and put us at a strategic disadvantage. […] More
Reagan Did Win the Cold War
OPINION — As we debate whether we’re in a new cold war, a recent movie and book about the legacy of President Ronald Reagan have inspired […] More
To Fight Fentanyl Traffic, U.S. Needs More Than Law Enforcement
Cipher Brief COO Brad Christian spoke with Michael Vigil, former Chief of International Operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), about the arrests of Sinaloa […] More
Can High-Profile Cartel Arrests Halt the Fentanyl Traffic?
DEEP DIVE — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a co-founder and leader of Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa Cartel, has entered a not guilty plea to 17 drug trafficking […] More
Cipher Brief Experts Offer Reflections on 9/11 – and What Came After
SPECIAL REPORT — It’s been a very long ride since terrorists sent by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden set out on a fateful mission […] More
Is the Defense Department Ready for an Age of Disruption?
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — Does the United States military have an innovation problem? For all its smart leaders and money and obvious edge in many areas, […] More