The Cipher Brief: Latest Updates

America's Culture Wars Are Rippling Through The Armed Forces

America's Culture Wars Are Rippling Through The Armed Forces

OPINION — As Congress moves the fiscal 2024 Defense Department authorization and appropriation bills forward with more money to help needed [...] More

Prigozhin’s Revolt is not the End for Putin, but it’s the Beginning of the End

China’s Ukraine Gambit – ‘Win-win’ or ‘Lose-lose?’

Prigozhin’s Mutiny: A Reminder About Analytic Humility

Putin Faces His Most Serious Threat to Power, Even as Wagner Chief Halts March on Moscow

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING — In a brief address to the nation, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed not to “allow a civil war,” evoking the Russian [...] More

The US May Not Be Looking For a Fight with China, But It’s Preparing For One

OPINION — “We’re engaged in an intense competition with China across many areas, but it’s not in our interest for that competition to end in [...] More

Putin’s Days May Be Numbered, but China’s the Bigger Threat, says Ex-CIA Chief

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING — Someone other than Vladimir Putin will likely be running Russia in as little as three years, says former CIA Director and [...] More

Justice by Hellfire: The Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri

It’s possible that the terrorist leader, wanted for his role in plotting the 9/11 attacks and later becoming the head of al Qaeda after the killing [...] More

The Unraveling of Russian Spies

OPINION — Last Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the illegal intelligence department [Division S] of his Foreign Intelligence [...] More

Resilience, National Security and the Immediate Need for Action

Resilience, National Security and the Immediate Need for Action

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — Resilience is a word we hear a lot, but what does it mean and why should we care? And how do we become more resilient on a [...] More

Australia Must End its Pacific Stupor Before it's too late

Australia Must End its Pacific Stupor Before it's too late

Australia’s neglect has allowed China to expand its grand strategy of global base-building into the Pacific. It is not too late for us to shore up [...] More

A breakdown of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Russia's War in Ukraine

A breakdown of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Russia's War in Ukraine

Behind the uplifting scenes of Ukrainian resistance, there are some troubling questions as Putin’s war of aggression continues to get increasingly [...] More

Former CIA Officer Alex Finley and her Oligarch Yachts

AUTHOR INTERVIEW — When The Cipher Brief last crossed paths with author Alex Finley, we delved into the exploits of Victor Caro, the central [...] More

What You Need to Know about U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Wartime

OPINION — The Biden administration has made rational decisions on nuclear weapons in both policy - through the soon-to-be-release 2022 Nuclear [...] More

The Facts that Putin Cannot Change

The Facts that Putin Cannot Change

EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — As we used to say in government, it could be worse. A single death or wounding, a single destroyed hospital, school or [...] More

A Picture of Putin's Nuclear Option

OPINION — Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly threatened the use of his nuclear weapons and now has placed his nuclear deterrence [...] More

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