Latest Columns

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — If Russia ultimately launches military operations against Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden has signaled that the U.S. would respond not with direct [...] More

EXPERT OPINION — “Peace for our time,” declared British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain upon his arrival at Heston Aerodrome outside London on 30 September 1938.  [...] More

OPINION — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s four-hour end-of-year press conference told us a lot more about Russia and its leader than just his widely reported [...] More

OPINION — Perhaps it is just a reckless Khrushchevesque opening gambit, but Russia’s recent security demands suggest that Vladimir Putin’s condition for avoiding military action [...] More

This piece from Cipher Brief Expert Ambassador Joe DeTrani was first published in The Washington Times OPINION — Kim Jong Un, during his ten years of authoritarian rule [...] More

OPINION — Despite U.S. officials regularly voicing concern about lack of knowledge as to where China’s nuclear weapons program has been going, officials have known [...] More

OPINION — As President Joe Biden concludes his first year in office, his administration continues to face numerous national security challenges.  According to many, Biden’s [...] More

These are five short essays written by Undergraduate Fellows from the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas. Their essays present fresh, [...] More

OPINION — Buried in the 2,165 pages of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, scheduled to come up for a vote [...] More

OPINION — “I think we should stop teaching ‘truth to power’,” a CIA analytic instructor once told me. That was more than a decade ago, [...] More

ACADEMIC INCUBATOR — Since its launch in 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has secured a central position in China’s foreign policy with the [...] More

ACADEMIC INCUBATOR — During Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019, Republican lawmakers accessed the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility—or SCIF, in layman’s terms—that Rep. Adam Schiff [...] More

OPINION — Will past weeks of multi-national propaganda focused on military activity along the Ukraine/Russia border lead to a major conflict? Or is all this [...] More

ACADEMIC INCUBATOR — There have been many articles and studies written recently about the continent of Africa. The focus of these articles is on Great [...] More

ACADEMIC INCUBATOR — Russia’s current military capabilities in the Arctic are sufficient enough to cut off sea logistical routes and lines of communication between the [...] More

ACADEMIC INCUBATOR — Since its launch in 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has secured a central position in China’s foreign policy with the [...] More

OPINION — Instability in Latin America fuels refugee flows, inflation and criminal activity, all of which affect U.S. interests. The Biden Administration’s virtual summit on [...] More

OPINION — I was a Brigadier General 30 years ago, assigned in Europe as the head of intelligence.  Most of the time I was looking [...] More

OPINION — Despite everything else that’s going on, it’s time for the Biden administration to pay some attention to the tiny Republic of the Marshall [...] More

OPINION — Military exercises and psychological warfare operations have been underway for months along the tense Russia-Ukraine and Poland-Belarus borders and care needs to be [...] More

OPINION — During Monday’s dialogue, President Biden described Chinese President Xi Jinping as “a major world leader.” If, as Biden said, the United States accepts [...] More

How ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ Could Shape Diplomacy with the U.S. OPINION — As they prepare for this week’s virtual summit (their first formal meeting since [...] More

OPINION — World conditions are increasingly difficult. China heads everyone’s list as the most formidable of our four main antagonists for many reasons—but especially intimidating [...] More

OPINION — The Biden 2022 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), now in preparation, should focus on cutting un-needed nuclear weapons, and possibly reducing others. It should [...] More