Questions for Trump’s FBI Nominee Kash Patel
OPINION — “The FBI’s footprint has gotten so freaking big and the biggest problem the FBI has had has come out of its intel shops. I’d […] More
national security
Director of National Intelligence: Without the ODNI, ‘We Might Miss the Next 9/11’
SPECIAL REPORT — It wasn’t quite an “exit interview,“ but with just over six weeks remaining for the Biden administration, the Director of National Intelligence […] More
Before Confirming Tulsi Gabbard, the Senate Must Read the Fine Print
OPINION — “To say it changed my life was an understatement; just every day being confronted with that heavy human cost of war…I was the brigade’s […] More
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI): ‘Coordinated Orchestra’ or ‘Loveless Marriage’?
DEEP DIVE – The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is a relatively recent addition to the institutional architecture of the U.S. Intelligence […] More
The Latest
A Personal Message of Thanks from The Cipher Brief
A PERSONAL MESSAGE / OPINION — In this space that’s normally reserved for world-class reporting and analysis of global security issues, we thought we’d do […] More
Memo to the 47th President: The Psychology of America’s Adversaries Matters
MEMO TO THE PRESIDENT — Since Donald Trump’s victory in the November 5 election, The Cipher Brief has reached out to our network of experts for their thoughts […] More
Assessing US Recruitment: The Military V. Pete Hegseth
OPINION — “The U.S. Army Recruiting Command exceeded our fiscal year 2024 recruiting mission, with more than 55,000 future soldiers going to basic combat training. Additionally, […] More
Memo to the 47th President: Latin America is About More Than Migrants
MEMO TO THE PRESIDENT — Since Donald Trump’s victory in the November 5 election, The Cipher Brief has covered the potential implications a second Trump […] More
The World Trump Will Face: No Stability Here
OPINION — The so-called “Axis of Authoritarian” states – Russia, China, Iran and North Korea – pose an immediate threat to the international world order. […] More
Former US Commander: Future Global Policies ‘Being Written In Ukraine’
EXPERT INTERVIEW — In the week since Donald Trump’s election victory, the world has been speculating and preparing – in some cases with high anxiety […] More
How Trump 2.0 May Deal With Global Flashpoints
DEEP DIVE – As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, the U.S. faces an unusually broad set of global security challenges: wars […] More
Avoiding Strategic Surprise will be key in the next Administration
EXPERT Q&A – The Cipher Brief tapped Dave Pitts, former Assistant Director of CIA for South and Central Asia and range of other experts with […] More
How To Think in—and About—a Post-Analytic World
OPINION — In 1990, the world was on the cusp of a major transformation. The bifurcated, static and hierarchical Cold War era was giving way to […] More
Advice for Trump 2.0: Cipher Brief Experts Weigh In
EXPERT PERSPECTIVES — In the hours after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election, we turned to our network of experts for […] More
Decoding Global Reactions to Trump’s Victory
DEEP DIVE — It was, as Axios reporter Zachary Basu put it, “the most astonishing, gravity-defying comeback in the history of American politics.” But Donald Trump’s […] More
Global Challenges for 47th President: Two Major Wars, and Avoiding Conflict With China
EXPERT OPINION — As Americans vote, and an anxious nation awaits the results, we turned to a member of our expert network with extensive global […] More
Cyber Threat to US Critical Infrastructure: Dangers in ‘Weakest Links’
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS — As the cyber threat environment grows more complex and daunting by the day, the U.S. intelligence community is racing to bolster cybersecurity […] More
How to Save a Government: Remember 9/11 – and ‘Join the Team’
OPINION — Where were you two weeks after September 11th? No one ever asks this question, but it’s the one I answer in my mind when […] More
Why Mental Health Is Now a National Security Issue
OPINION — I recently had the privilege of attending the first annual “REAL Summit: The Intersection of Finance and Mental Health,” a 2-day conference in New […] More