The Cipher Brief: National Security news, analysis and expert commentary.

The Open Source Report

Israel strikes deep in Syria and Lebanon

China buying Iranian oil, indirectly funding Houthi attacks

Russia launches major missile, drone attack across Ukraine as Putin offers both reassurance and threat on a wider war

White House unveils AI governance policy for federal agencies

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Cipher Brief Expert Perspectives


On The Cipher Brief’s Digital Channel

Disinformation: A Weapon to Destroy Democracy?


Alternative Perspectives


The Mission to Secure Space | Cyber Initiatives Group 2024 Spring Summit

OT: The Cyber Threat That Can Kill You | CIG 2024 Spring Summit

Dispatches from Munich with Adm. Mike Rogers (Ret.)


Book Reviews

The Dead Drop

Dead Drop

This Week’s Dead Drop: March 29

HOW SUN TZU OF YOU:  Chinese military strategist and philosopher Sun Tzu once said, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”  The Cipher Brief is taking notes and just released a new video on disinformation that shows just how adversaries are using the strategic tactic to destabilize western democracies one social media user at a time, especially as elections approach. How clever to use Sun Tzu’s tactics to recruit an unwitting army of ‘Uncle Bobs’ or ‘Cousin Larrys’ to help spread divisive messages on your [...] More

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The Disinformation Threat to America


Podcasts

State Secrets

Dave Pitts was the CIA’s last man on the ground in Afghanistan as U.S. troops pulled out of the country in 2021. Even though he began his career as a humble private in the U.S. military, he quickly moved into special operations and eventually, to the CIA where he retired last October as the Assistant Director of CIA for South and Central Asia. In his first podcast interview, Dave talks with State Secrets Podcast host Suzanne Kelly about how much the world has changed since his early days of fighting terrorism in the military and why it’s more important than ever for the U.S. to be leading in today’s world.

Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment

CNN anchor and Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto is out with a new book called “The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China and the Next World War.” Drawing on his reporting from current hot spots like Ukraine, Taiwan and the Middle East - and in depth interviews with top U.S. and foreign leaders, Sciutto has written about the precarious nature of global security and how developments in each of these hot spots impacts the other. We’ll talk to him about how Chinese President Xi and Russian President Putin have similar views about their destinies in expanding their countries borders.

The Fight

There are few who understand this war better than Nataliya Bugayova. She lived and worked in Ukraine for years. Her present focus – as a non-resident fellow and the former Russia team lead at The Institute for the Study of War, is on the analysis of the Kremlin’s operations and on what’s happening in Ukraine today. She also serves as Director of Strategic Intelligence at a company called Vertical Knowledge.

Bugayova was part of a visiting delegation with The Cipher Brief that was led by General David Petraeus last fall. We sat down shortly afterward, to get her perspective on how this war is ‘really’ going and how she sees it ending.


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General John R. Allen (Ret.) Former Commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan

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Daniel Hoffman Former CIA Chief of Station

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Paul Kolbe Director of The Intelligence Project at Harvard University's Belfer Center

The Cipher Brief has quickly established itself as a go-to site among Washington national security devotees – and those outside the capital as well. Readers have learned that they can quickly catch up on the latest news, take deeper dives into the key issues, and get a peek behind the curtain with Cipher’s unique Dead Drop feature – all on one user friendly spot.

John McLaughlin Former Acting Director, CIA

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