Latest columns

Machine Learning and Tracking Terrorists

by Joel T. Meyer

As the accused accomplices of terrorist Mohammed Merah stood trial in France in October 2017, aggregate web page traffic related to the location of the trial, hostile vehicle mitigation equipment,...

President Trump's NATO Summit and Prep for Russia

by Deborah Lee James

The White House put out a statement this morning as President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg offered comments to reporters before breakfast, with the President telling...

Top-Down Presidential Leadership: The Helsinki Summit

by Rolf Mowatt-Larssen

Two conditions are clear as the U.S. and Russian Presidents prepare meet in Helsinki. First, U.S.-Russian relations are arguably at their lowest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the...

Is North Korea Boiling Down to a War of Words?

by Walter Pincus

OPINION — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tried Sunday to use current U.S. relations with an old wartime enemy, the Communist government in Vietnam, as a prod for Kim Jong-un to move forward on...

The Perils of a Putin-Trump Summit

by Steven L. Hall

As a former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, I’m worried about the upcoming summit between the Chekist former KGB officer, President Vladimir Putin, and the former real estate...

Pushing Back on Iran: A Different Approach

by Kenneth Pollack

Kenneth M. Pollack is a Resident Scholar of the American Enterprise Institute. It’s not surprising that a great many people would like to push back on Iran, including the Trump Administration. ...

China on Space: America, Hold My Beer

by Douglas H. Wise

President Donald Trump recently ‘re-opened’ the debate on the creation of an entity to manage our national security space assets.  Based on his comments, the President’s intent was...

President Trump Needs to Keep Ukraine High on the Agenda for Upcoming Summit

by Daniel Hoffman

Moscow Station is a new Cipher Brief column containing the highest-level insights into the evolving and comprehensive national security threat posed by Russia.  The column features distinctive...

Special Operations DEPTEMPO and the National Security Risk

by Stu Bradin

Most of my adult life was spent as a soldier in special operations. One of the most persistent issues throughout my career was finding the right balance of deployment tempo (DEPTEMPO) with time in...

Keeping the Role of the White House Cyber Security Coordinator in Perspective

by Dr. Barbara George

Protecting the technology networks connecting more than two million employees working in over 400 government agencies serving about 325 million Americans is a herculean feat. In May, the Office of...