The Strange Case of Michael Flynn
OPINION — Cherry-picked information filed last Thursday by the Justice Department in Attorney General William Barr’s effort to have charges dismissed against one-time Trump National […] More
Fine Print
The Uneasy Balance between Care and Provocation
OPINION — This past March and April, US Naval Forces attached to Central Command carried out live fire exercises in the North Persian Gulf’s international […] More
DoD’s Blueprint for Coronavirus Testing
OPINION — Defense Department senior officials last week described plans to increase testing for Covid-19 over the next few months, prioritizing higher risk forces but […] More
DoD’s War Against Covid-19
OPINION — The Defense Department has gone to war against the coronavirus, employing some 50,000 troops on both offense and defense. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen, […] More
The Usefulness of Inspectors General
OPINION — Up to now, a politically divided Congress has been unsuccessful in slowing down President Trump’s accumulation of power, which thanks to the Covid-19 […] More
Radically Rethinking National Security
OPINION — The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic should accelerate serious rethinking about what future federal government spending is needed in the name of “national security.” As […] More
How to Build Field Hospitals Quickly and Efficiently
OPINION — If fighting the Covid-19 virus is a war, the Army Corps of Engineers is being led into battle by an exemplary field commander, […] More
Preparing for Elections in the Midst of a Pandemic
OPINION – What’s happening today with COVID-19, from global healthcare systems under extreme stress to the far-reaching economic impact, will be felt for years to […] More
Offensive Operations and US Defense
OPINION — “Offensive operations, often times, is (sic) the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defence,” a retired George Washington, living […] More
What Our Nuclear Future Looks Like
OPINION — Last Friday, the Associated Press and Reuters both reported that an un-named senior administration official said that the U.S. told Moscow that President […] More
The Russian Obsession
OPINION — President Trump, this past week, has shown that he is just as serious today about undercutting the intelligence community’s January 6, 2017, conclusion […] More
How Will Investigations Into Russian Interference Move Forward?
OPINION — President Trump is actively trying to excise the criminal fallout from investigations into Moscow’s 2016 covert support for his presidential election and have […] More
What Does Another Nuclear Warhead Do?
OPINION — Should we all sleep easier because at last we have a low-yield nuclear warhead sitting atop a Trident D-5 sub-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) […] More
Why a Closer Look at SOCOM Should be on the Radar
OPINION — It’s time for the House or Senate Armed Services Committees to take a close look at U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) and hold […] More
DoD’s New Marching Orders: Fail Fast
Walter Pincus is a contributing senior national security columnist at The Cipher Brief. He spent forty years at The Washington Post, writing on national security-related […] More
Congress MIA on Oversight Responsibilities
OPINION — When are members of Congress going to wake up and play their Constitutional role as an equal branch of government? Neither the Democratic […] More
Cyber is the New Nuclear
OPINION — The Trump administration’s new attempt to open strategic nuclear talks with China “ASAP,” as mentioned in a State Department tweet last Friday, focuses […] More
Sorting Facts from Propaganda
OPINION — “The function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them into relation with each other, and make a […] More