Violence in Gaza, Yemen and Syria Tests Middle East – and the Trump Administration
EXPERT INTERVIEW – Just a few weeks ago, the Middle East seemed in a rare moment of relative calm: ceasefires were holding in Gaza and […] More
Hezbollah
Iran, the Nuclear Program, and Trump 2.0
As the second Trump Administration took office, it found a Middle East landscape that had been transformed dramatically in the last year alone. Nowhere is […] More
Expert Q&A: Lebanon’s New Leadership Offers Hope After Chaos
EXPERT INTERVIEW — Lebanon’s parliament elected Joseph Aoun, the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, as the country’s new president on January 9, ending a deadlock […] More
8 Global Security Questions For 2025
SPECIAL REPORT — Given how unpredictable 2024 proved to be – did anyone foresee the fall of Bashar Al-Assad, the decapitation of Hezbollah, an invasion of […] More
The Latest
2024: 10 Great Cipher Brief Conversations
SPECIAL REPORT — In a year of world-changing events – from the Middle East to Ukraine, cyberattacks to undersea cable attacks, and much more – The […] More
2024: 10 Events That Changed The World
SPECIAL REPORT — As we look back at the major national and global security events of 2024, it’s tempting to overuse certain words: stunning; staggering; […] More
Memo to the 47th President: A New and Dangerous Middle East
EDITOR’S NOTE — Since Donald Trump’s victory in the November 5 election, The Cipher Brief has reached out to our network of experts for thoughts on what the […] More
Lessons from Israel’s Tale of Two Fronts
OPINION — On Oct 6th, Hamas was ready to launch an audacious attack. It was complex, involved thousands of fighters, and aimed to kill, capture, […] More
Iran’s ‘Ring of Fire’ Is In Trouble. What Comes Next?
DEEP DIVE — It may be the most consequential change to the Middle East since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks against Israel, and the wars […] More
How Trump’s Win Alters the Landscape in the Middle East
DEEP DIVE — The Middle East has changed dramatically since President Donald Trump left office in 2021. An always-tense part of the world has seen an […] More
Militant Islam is Under Attack – But Its Root Causes Endure
OPINION — As the Israeli assault on Gaza passes the 13-month mark, and as Hezbollah reels under the massive Israeli bombing campaign on its leaders […] More
Israel’s New Military and Security Strategy: Could it Work?
EXPERT INTERVIEW — The Israel-Iran conflict has intensified in unprecedented ways over the past year, since Hamas — one of Iran’s anti-Israel proxy militias — breached […] More
Could Israeli Attacks Prompt Changes in Iranian Intelligence?
OPINION — Iran’s intelligence services, particularly its Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS), must have been awestruck by Israel’s late-September airstrike on Hezbollah’s underground Beirut headquarters. The Israeli […] More
The Axis of Authoritarians – and A Dangerous World
OPINION — The October 1 debate between Senators Tim Walz and JD Vance dealt with just one foreign policy question: the widening war in the Middle […] More
Lessons From Israel’s Operation to Dismantle Hezbollah
EXPERT OPINION — Many may have thought that the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was untouchable in Lebanon, and that an unprovoked Israeli attack on Nasrallah in […] More
One Year Later, Lessons from Israel’s October 7 Intelligence Failures
OPINION — As Israel marks the one-year anniversary of the tragic October 7 attacks by Hamas, the country still has limited insight into the security establishment’s […] More
Lebanon has a chance to return power to its people. Will it take it?
OPINION — On 29 September, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced that his country was “committed to Resolution 1701” – a 2006 U.N. ceasefire plan […] More
Ex-US Commander: In Mideast, ‘We’re in the Wider War Now’
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — The Middle East is on the brink of a new war, after a dizzying series of events: Israel has battered Hezbollah militants in […] More
Ex-Secretary of Defense: Iran’s Attack Ushers in ‘Dangerous World’ in Middle East
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — On the day after Iran’s missile strikes against Israel, and as Israel’s war cabinet considered a retaliation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and […] More