WTOP’s JJ Green Gets Real About Journalism Today
If you’ve done any reporting on national security issues in Washington DC, you probably already know JJ Green. He’s been covering national security for the […] More
State of Play
How Jimmy Hatch Touched the Dragon and Survived
I was introduced to Jimmy Hatch via email in late 2014. I was months away from launching The Cipher Brief and a mutual friend who […] More
Book Review: U.S. Spies Triumph in Tragedy against Hitler
Wartime has been a force multiplier for espionage ever since the Revolutionary War, when General George Washington was the founding father of the art of […] More
Taking a Lesson from Churchill for Today
The Cipher Brief’s State of Play series encompasses reviews of the books, movies and TV shows that help shape our understanding of the national security […] More
The Latest
Daniel Silva’s House of Spies: Old Spies Don’t Die or Fade Away
As General Douglas MacArthur famously said, “Old soldiers don’t die, they just fade away.” In the world of fiction, old spies don’t die or fade […] More
Homeland Season 6: “The Covenant”
The latest episode of Homeland introduces new plot twists into the two parallel story lines: the government case against jihadist Seiku Bah and CIA officer […] More
Spies in the Congo: The Unique Role of the OSS
Susan Williams’ book, Spies in the Congo, provides a well-researched and detailed history of the efforts of the Office of Strategic Services, America’s first strategic […] More
The Fall of Moscow Station: Thinking Outside the Box
Mark Henshaw’s latest spy thriller could have been ripped straight from today’s headlines as tensions between Moscow and Washington continue to mount. The Fall of […] More
Brad Thor’s Foreign Agent Formulaic and Unrealistic, But Enjoyable
Brad Thor’s latest thriller Foreign Agent is the fifteenth in his Scot Harvath series, and finds former Navy SEAL Harvath fighting both ISIS and evil […] More
"Snowden" Wrongly Portrays the NSA as an Outsized Bogeyman
Edward Snowden is back in the news. Oliver Stone’s sympathetic and conspiracy-heavy biopic landed in theaters this month. Meanwhile, a raft of Snowdenistas are leveraging […] More
"Snowden" Snow Job
The Cipher Brief asked our network member Mark Kelton, the former CIA Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Counterintelligence, for his impressions of […] More
Tom Clancy Duty and Honor: A Coming of Age Thriller Without the Geopolitical Intrigue
Duty and Honor is the latest in the multi-volume series by Tom Clancy and his successors featuring Jack Ryan and his son Jack, Jr., who […] More
Daniel Silva's The Black Widow: Eerily Reminiscent
Daniel Silva’s The Black Widow is the most relevant to contemporary events and most chillingly prescient of all his celebrated novels. Gabriel Allon, the art […] More