Columns And Op‑Eds

A Glimpse of the U.S.' New Nuclear Posture

by Walter Pincus

Walter Pincus is a contributing senior national security columnist for The Cipher Brief. He spent forty years at The Washington Post, writing on topics from nuclear weapons to politics.  In 2002, he...

Three Wise Men and Their Duty to Serve

by Three Wise Men

BOOK REVIEW: Three Wise Men: A Navy SEAL, a Green Beret and How their Marine Brother Became a War’s Sole Survivor  By Beau Wise and Tom Sileo / St. Martin’s Press Reviewed by Brad Christian THE...

What International Leaders Should Do About Myanmar's Military Coup

by Joseph DeTrani

Cipher Brief Expert Ambassador Joseph DeTrani is former Special envoy for Six Party Talks with North Korea and the former U.S. Representative to the Korea Energy Development Organization (KEDO), as...

The Realities of Diversity in Spycraft

by Sonya Seunghye Lim

Sonya Seunghye Lim is a former Chief of Station with the Central Intelligence Agency. Before retiring from the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, she had a 24-year distinguished career in the...

The Spyhunter's Burden

by Mark Kelton

OPINION — A recent email from the current Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Chief of Counterintelligence (C/CI), wherein Agency retirees were reminded of their life-long obligation to protect...

Grants to fight Terrorism are only the beginning

by Javed Ali

Thomas Warrick was DHS Deputy Assistant for Counterterrorism Policy from August 2008 to June 2019 and is now Director of the Future of DHS Project at the Atlantic Council.  Javed Ali held senior...

How will Saudi Pro-Reform Activists Respond to Biden's Approach to MBS?

by Emile Nakhleh

Emile Nakhleh is a retired CIA Senior Intelligence Service Officer and founding director of the CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program Office. Nakhleh is currently a Research Professor...

Why A Conventional Military Buildup with China Deserves a Second Look

by Walter Pincus

OPINION — Last week, the Biden administration spelled out its opening carrot-and-stick policy toward the Beijing regime during appearances before two different Congressional committees. Last...

The Future of Navalny's Opposition Movement

by John McLaughlin

John McLaughlin served as Acting Director of Central Intelligence and as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. He is the Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Johns Hopkins School of...

Evolving Cybersecurity Takes More Than Money

Hitesh Sheth is the president and CEO of Vectra. Previously, he was chief operating officer at Aruba Networks and before that,  he was EVP/GM at Juniper Networks. PRIVATE SECTOR — The March 3...