The Devil is in the Details for the F-35
OPINION — While the media and Congress have kept the public focused on the Mueller report and the next election, there are national security budgetary […] More
DoD
What Happens When Weapons go to War?
Lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) are weapons that need little, if any, human interaction in order to select and engage their targets. While technology to […] More
It’s Been Over 300 Days Since a Pentagon Press Briefing
For about six months now, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has used her briefing room so little that officials might as well turn it back into […] More
Training the Next Field of Space Warriors
The U.S. is trying to quickly gear up the nation’s ability to fight in space and our best clues into just how they’re planning to […] More
Closing the Gaps Before the Next War: The Army’s New Sense of Urgency
Close to six thousand people, including current military leaders and members of the defense industry, are gathered at AUSA’s 2019 Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, […] More
Seeking the Right Tech to Ensure National Security
The Department of Defense launched an experiment in 2015 aimed at making it easier for the government to benefit from commercial technology. It was called […] More
Taking Down Russian Trolls is My Kind of Cyber Attack
The debate on cyber conflict has gotten so locked into deterrence, escalation, coercion, and signaling we pundits often forget that conflict is sometimes straightforward and […] More
SOCOM’s Discipline and Ethics on the Radar
The Cipher Brief’s new Friday column Cipher Select, is laser-focused on bringing you a range of different perspectives on special operations issues over the next several […] More
Special Operations Focuses Inward
United States Special Operations Forces are attracting attention for the wrong reasons after a spate of incidents overseas that involved the murder of Americans, allegedly […] More
One Bad Decision on Syria Doesn’t Necessarily Lead to Another
President Donald Trump now says U.S. troops will “slowly” be withdrawn from Syria after his controversial announcement in December, saying that troops would be pulled […] More
The High Cost of President Trump’s Decision-Making Style
The Administration will start the new year with a new acting Secretary of Defense after President Donald Trump accepted James Mattis’s resignation letter and moved […] More
President Trump’s Syria Surprise
The 19 December announcement by President Trump to withdraw ground troops from Syria was surprising to everyone but should have come as a shock to […] More
5 Reasons to Support a Space Force
Vice President Mike Pence put a little rocket fuel behind plans to create a new Space Force on Tuesday by announcing that President Donald Trump […] More
Iraq’s New Year Challenges
Despite years of forecasts predicting implosion, partition, revolution, Iranian absorption and other apocalyptic scenarios, there were generally more good events in 2018 than bad in […] More
How to Support and Distance Yourself from the President’s DoD Budget
OPINION — Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer last week joined the very public chorus of defense experts in questioning whether President Trump’s call for reducing […] More
General Jack Keane Awarded Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Award
The Cipher Brief extends its congratulations to Cipher Brief Expert, General Jack Keane, on being awarded this year’s ‘Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Award’ at […] More
Trump’s Thanksgiving Message
OPINION — The media should be satisfied with President Trump’s telephoned “visit to the troops overseas” from his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thanksgiving Day, and not […] More
China on Track for Peer Military Status with U.S. by 2050
According to a recent report by the National Defense Strategy Commission (NDS), the U.S. Department of Defense and the White House “have not yet articulated […] More