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National Security

Commercial vessels divert to UAE coasts amid navigation issues

The Hormuz Standoff: Global Energy Flow Severs After 'Epic Fury' Strikes

The Hormuz Standoff: Global Energy Flow Severs After 'Epic Fury' StrikesAs tensions in and around Iran proliferate, the narrow waterway between Iran [...] More

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Building the Talent Pipeline for America’s Security Future

OPINION – Public service, at its core, is bigger than government service alone. Serving one’s country takes many forms, and in a time when the [...] More

The Cognitive Battlefield is Now Decisive Terrain

OPINION -- Senior policymakers, military leaders, technologists and narrative strategists had one thing on their minds as they gathered in a Reston [...] More

Alliances, Ukraine, and China’s Growing Challenge

EXPERT Q&A — Evelyn Farkas has spent decades working at the center of U.S. national security and transatlantic defense policy. A former Deputy [...] More

Washington’s Venezuelan Gamble: The Old Guard’s Continued Grip on Power

Washington’s Venezuelan Gamble: The Old Guard’s Continued Grip on Power

DEEP DIVE — More than six weeks after United States special forces extracted Nicolás Maduro from Caracas, Venezuela remains under the control of the [...] More

Defending the Homeland: Pentagon Shifts Strategy on Drone Threats

OPINION — “This memorandum consolidates approximately ten separate outdated memoranda that were inadequate to address the current, complex unmanned [...] More

How Cuba's Infrastructure Crisis Is Opening the Door to Foreign Intelligence Networks

How Cuba's Infrastructure Crisis Is Opening the Door to Foreign Intelligence Networks

DEEP DIVE — On February 13, nighttime light emissions across major Cuban cities had dropped as much as 50 percent compared to historical averages — [...] More

Media Literacy Isn’t Enough Anymore

OPINION — For years, media literacy has been treated as the solution to misinformation. I've advocated that position as well.Teach people to question [...] More

From the Monroe Doctrine to Maduro: The Precedent Problem in U.S.

OPINION — In 1895, Secretary of State Richard Olney sent a diplomatic note to Britain that contained one of the most remarkable sentences in American [...] More

Confidence, Interoperability, and the Limits of U.S. Decision Systems

OPINION — In recent months, U.S. policy debates have increasingly acknowledged that the decisive contests of the 21st century will not be fought [...] More

A Path to Understanding Autonomy in Defense Technology

Welcome to The Iron Triangle, the Cipher Brief column serving procurement officers tasked with buying the future, Investors funding the next [...] More

Standing Up to a Spy: My Run-In with Aldrich Ames

OPINION — I had an unpleasant episode with Aldrich Ames which taught me some life lessons. I was a mid-level CIA analyst working Caucasus and Central [...] More

Xi Jinping Tightens Grip as China’s Military Purge Deepens

OPINION — In China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “commands the gun”, and Chinese President Xi Jinping controls the one million members of the [...] More