For Those Who Gave All: Special Operations Warrior Foundation
This Christmas season was unlike any previous holiday for many military families. U.S. Special Operations Command lost 47 troops in the line of duty, out […]
Opinion
GallantFew: Vets Guiding Vets
GallantFew’s mission is to prevent veteran isolation by connecting new veterans with hometown veteran mentors, thereby facilitating a peaceful, successful transition from military service to […]
National Military Family Association: Taking Care of the Homefront
As I scramble around doing last-minute shopping and other preparations for the Christmas holidays, I occasionally stop to count my blessings. One of those is […]
Holidays Spent in the Field: A Letter to CIA Officers
Emotions run higher on a holiday, no matter one’s faith or tradition. The highs are higher and the lows lower, especially the gut punch of […]
Taking a Lesson from Churchill for Today
The Cipher Brief’s State of Play series encompasses reviews of the books, movies and TV shows that help shape our understanding of the national security […]
Russian Active Measures and the 2016 Election Hack
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Funny, that. The Soviet and Russian […]
Anti-Mueller Campaign: Building Wall Against Future Impeachment Push?
A coordinated operation is underway between the White House and Republican members of Congress to undermine Special Counsel Robert A. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian […]
The Bitcoin Experiment
The launch of Bitcoin futures trading is a good moment to consider the cyber and wider security issues raised by this and other cryptography-based currencies. It is […]
The Iran Conundrum: Serious Containment Versus Stability
President Donald Trump put Iran on notice in October, declaring that the U.S. would counter the regime’s “destabilizing activity.” Iran isn’t listening. Instead, Iran is […]
Getting the Best Out of Moscow
Russia’s annexation of Crimea, intervention in eastern Ukraine, and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election have escalated distrust and rancor between the U.S. and […]
The Master of Chaos vs. the Iranian Nuclear Agreement
The two-month mark is fast approaching when Congress could reimpose sanctions on Iran, possibly giving leaders in Tehran the right to pull out of the […]
FBI Director Wray Shows His Loyalty…to the Truth
New FBI Director Christopher A. Wray is signaling that he takes the possibility of future Russian meddling in U.S. elections seriously, and he plans to run […]
Being ‘Future Smart’ Means Thinking Years – Or Decades – Ahead
The U.S. arguably is facing more complex and serious threats to our national security than at any time in our history. Intelligence is critical to […]
Exposing Russian Interference – The Value of Real-Time Forensics
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to exploit open and free U.S. cyberspace, which serves as a force multiplier for commerce and freedom of expression, […]
A Call for an End to Harassment in National Security Workplaces
Alongside news about North Korean missile tests, Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and “Rexit” (Is Rex Tillerson in or out at the State Department?), we are […]
The Jerusalem Pronouncement – Fueling the Cycle of Violence
From the Arab perspective—and my own—the timing of President Donald Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem makes little sense. The peace process has been slow in developing […]
The Ticking Time Bomb of Iran’s Proxy Industry
Saudi Arabia’s increasingly assertive moves against Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah have provoked understandable Western concern, particularly over the potential impact of these steps on Lebanon’s […]
From Watergate to Iran-Contra to Flynn, the Cover-Up Reveals the Crime
It’s always the cover-up. That was the starting point for unraveling Nixon’s Watergate and Reagan’s Iran-contra affair. I covered both scandals and believe special counsel […]