Columns And Op‑Eds

We Need An Insurrection Investigation

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...

Spies, Journalists and the Literature of Witness

by On All Fronts

BOOK REVIEW: On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist by Clarissa Ward / Penguin Press Reviewed by Marc Polymeropoulos Cipher Brief Expert Marc Polymeropoulos served 26 years in the CIA before...

The Tragedy of Social Media Moderation

by Abigail Griffin

OPINION — Within today’s online environment, we’ve seen a billowing public awareness of “fake news,” the uncontrolled spread of disinformation (and its very real impacts), public acts...

America's Allies Shocked by Storming of the Capitol

by Nick Fishwick

The Cipher Brief asked our experts to weigh in on how they saw Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump protesters and how allies and adversaries are likely viewing the events of the...

Going Undercover to Catch Cybercriminals

by Richard LaTulip

Our friends at The Record talked recently with Richard LaTulip, a former Secret Service Special Agent who spent time undercover to better understand the motivations and methods of cyber criminals....

Toward a More Diverse and Inclusive Intelligence Community

by Lauren Zabierek

Lauren Zabierek is the Executive Director of the Cyber Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. She previously served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force and as a...

An Activist, A Prison Sentence and the US-Saudi Special Relationship

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. He is currently a Research Professor and...

Today's World Through the Lens of 2020

by Robert Cardillo

Robert Cardillo served as the sixth Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Prior to that assignment, Mr. Cardillo served as the first Deputy Director for Intelligence...

The Fallout from a Contentious Confirmation Battle

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...

Creating the Blueprint on AI

January 19, 2021 at 1:30pm ET Presenting: Artificial Intelligence in the New Age of National Security a 6-part series Part 1: Creating the Blueprint on Artificial Intelligence This special series of...