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South China Sea

POKROVSK, UKRAINE - OCTOBER 7: A general aerial view shows the destroyed city covered in morning fog, following months of intense fighting near the front line, on October 7, 2025 in Pokrovsk, Ukraine.

Global Intelligence Report for Friday, November 7, 2025

07:16 America/New_York Friday, November 7 [...] More

The Latest

Amid Tensions with China, The Philippines Worries About the U.S.

Amid Tensions with China, The Philippines Worries About the U.S.

EXPERT INTERVIEW – As the world trains its focus on the headlines about Ukraine — the U.S. pivot to Russia, the pause on American support to Ukraine, [...] More

Why Political Change in the Philippines May Mean Trouble for the U.S. 

OPINION — Domestic geopolitics matters. The recent departure of Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio from President Bongbong Marcos’s [...] More

EXPERT ANALYSIS: Escalating Tensions Between China and the Philippines Could Draw the U.S. Into Conflict

EXPERT ANALYSIS: Escalating Tensions Between China and the Philippines Could Draw the U.S. Into Conflict

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT — Long-simmering tensions in the South China Sea and a recent spate of close calls and violent run-ins involving China and the [...] More

South China Sea Flareups Raise Fears of Wider Conflict

South China Sea Flareups Raise Fears of Wider Conflict

SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE REPORTING — The South China Sea is boiling again. This month, the Philippines accused China’s coast guard of deploying water [...] More

Track 2 Talks Aimed at Preventing Conflict with China

OPINION – The need to avoid war and military confrontation was the focus of Track 2 talks with China following the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [...] More

War is the Realm of Uncertainty

Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Walter Pincus is a contributing senior national security columnist at The Cipher Brief. He spent forty years at The [...] More

Multilateralism and the South China Sea

The Cipher Brief’s Academic Incubator partners with national security-focused programs from colleges and Universities across the country to share the [...] More

The China Problem

The China Problem

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called out China’s claims in the South China Sea this week, saying they are “completely unlawful.” It was a [...] More

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 [...] More

Beijing's Latest White Paper: China's National Defense in the New Era

Bottom Line Up FrontOn July 22, 2019, China issued a new defense white paper titled China's National Defense in the New Era.The white paper stresses [...] More

China 30 Years After Tiananmen Square

Bottom Line Up Front: On June 4, 1989 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) staged a violent crackdown on peaceful protesters who gathered at Tiananmen [...] More

Chinese Military Modernization and Implications for Taiwan

Bottom Line Up FrontEarlier this month, China released footage from a military exercise where the ‘Guam killer’ DF-26 ballistic missile was tested.In [...] More