Columns And Op‑Eds

A Path to Reset Iran Policy

by Norman Roule

Norman T. Roule served for 34-years in the Central Intelligence Agency, managing numerous programs relating to Iran and the Middle East.  He served as the National Intelligence Manager for Iran...

Maintaining Voluntary Measures for Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Could be Deadly

by Bryson Bort

Rob Knake is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a non-resident fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center. Bryson Bort is CEO, of SCYTHE an attack emulation platform and co-founder of...

The New Never-Ending War

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...

The Strategic Offensive Against the CCP

by Doowan Lee

Doowan Lee is a strategic advisor to the Institute for Security and Technology and adjunct professor of politics at the Univ. of San Francisco.   Phil W. Reynolds is a visiting scholar at the Center...

The Ethics of the Kill Decision: Should Humans Always be in the Loop?

by Blaine Ravert

The Cipher Brief’s Academic Incubator partners with national security-focused programs from colleges and Universities across the country share the work of the next generation of national security...

North Korean Denuclearization is Possible

by Joseph DeTrani

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

Reading the Roots of Russia's Political Warfare

by The Folly and the Glory

BOOK REVIEW: The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia and the Political Warfare 1945-2020  by Tim Weiner / Henry Holt & Co. Reviewed by Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley (Ret.) Cipher Brief Expert...

General James Mattis and the Changing Nature of War

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...

Most Tools Failed to Detect the SolarWinds Malware

by Rob Knake

Rob Knake is the Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Knake served from 2011 to 2015 as director for cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council....

A Roadmap for Tackling Violent Extremist Content Online

by Javed Ali

Javed Ali is a Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and had over 20 years professional experience in Washington, DC on national...