Pakistan’s Election Stunner – and the Dangers Ahead
SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – It was a stunning result that few saw coming: a clear victory at the polls for Pakistan’s jailed ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, […] More
Pakistan
Today’s Terrorist Threat
EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — MI5 Director General, Ken McCallum’s, joint address on 6th July with the FBI Chief saw a welcome rebalancing of the Security Service’s […] More
OPINION: The Future of US Cooperation with Pakistan
This piece by General Joseph Votel (Ret.) and Lt. Gen. Michael K. Nagata (Ret.) and was first published by our friends at the Middle East […] More
Are We Ready for Another Shock?
OPINION — “Black swans” are events that arrive as unwelcome surprises and have significant effects on nations and societies. They can upend the status quo […] More
The Latest
What we’re learning about National Security from COVID-19
As of this writing, Johns Hopkins, is reporting more than 432,438 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US, and nearly 1.5m confirmed cases worldwide. While […] More
Pakistan’s Afghan Triumph Carries Risks for Islamabad
Tim Willasey-Wilsey is a former senior member of the British Foreign Office. He is currently a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at Kings College London’s Department […] More
Why has Pakistan not Annexed its parts of Kashmir?
Tim Willasey-Wilsey is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College, London and a former senior British diplomat. Pakistan has decided not to annex its […] More
Profile of a Private Sector Intelligence Analyst
Angela Lewis, Manager of Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis Team at The Walt Disney Company Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight […] More
OSINT Global Trendline Report
The Cipher Brief’s Open Source Trend Line Report utilizes open source data on a quarterly basis to track trends around the world that impact national […] More
NGA’s Focus Forward Intelligence Mission
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has long relied on a range of technological tools to provide geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) like commercial imaging, remote sensing and human […] More
Dr. Shakil Afridi: How a Valuable U.S. Intelligence Asset Became a Liability
EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY — The house had been watched for quite some time. The home in Abbottabad was just about a mile from the Pakistani Military Academy […] More
National Security Science: Earthquake or Nuclear Test?
With ongoing and often frustrating nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea and heightened tensions between nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan over Kashmir, having a […] More
India’s Dangerous Move in Kashmir
The Indian-administered area of Kashmir has been on lockdown since the Indian government said earlier this week that it was revoking the region of its […] More
New Lessons Lead to New War Plans for India and Pakistan
India believes it won the hostilities which followed the Pulwama attack in February 2019. According to New Delhi the attack on Balakot not only punished […] More
How Close Did India and Pakistan Come to War?
It needs no more than 4 bad decisions for India and Pakistan to go to war; and 5 for that war to go nuclear. So […] More
The Next Terrorist Threat
ISIS has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack at a cathedral in the Philippines that left at least 21 people dead and scores injured. Earlier this […] More
Cipher Brief Analysis: The Pakistan Problem
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan recently returned from China without the concrete funding assurances that he was seeking in order to keep his country from […] More