OPINION – Over a decade ago, I was a public official and was at one of our commission meetings on the coast of California. A fellow commissioner and I decided to take a long lunchtime walk along the coast. As we chatted, we realized we had both worked on severalContinue Reading
OPINION — Senior policymakers, military leaders, technologists and narrative strategists had one thing on their minds as they gathered in a Reston conference room last week – how decision advantage, psychological leverage, and narrative dominance are increasingly capable of determining strategic outcomes. Cognitive warfare – once treated as an adjunctContinue Reading
OPINION — “Despite claims of battlefield momentum in Ukraine, the data shows that Russia is paying an extraordinary price for minimal gains and is in decline as a major power. Since February 2022, Russian forces have suffered nearly 1.2 million casualties, more losses than any major power in any warContinue Reading
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 federal workforce is shrinking, recognizing the breadth of these opportunities is critical. In my roles as an adjunct at Texas A&M’s Bush School, an alumniContinue Reading
CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING — Exactly who tracked El Mencho, the world’s most wanted and feared drug lord, to a heavily armed safe house in a remote Sierra Madre town is a secret, for now. The Mexican government has revealed only that its air force and special forces commandos descended onContinue Reading
KREMLIN FILES/ANALYSIS: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 did not emerge from a strategic vacuum. It was the culmination of over a decade of experimentation in hybrid warfare, and of increasingly rigid assumptions inside Russia’s intelligence services. From Crimea and the Donbas in 2014, through Syria and aContinue Reading
EXPERT Q&A — Evelyn Farkas has spent decades working at the center of U.S. national security and transatlantic defense policy. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, she now serves as Executive Director of the McCain Institute, where she focuses on strengthening democratic alliances andContinue Reading
EXPERT INTERVIEW — Evelyn Farkas has spent decades working at the center of U.S. national security and transatlantic defense policy. A former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, she now serves as Executive Director of the McCain Institute, where she focuses on strengthening democratic alliances andContinue Reading
DEEP DIVE — More than six weeks after United States special forces extracted Nicolás Maduro from Caracas, Venezuela remains under the control of the same intelligence apparatus that ran the regime’s torture networks. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who oversaw the feared Bolivarian intelligence service under Maduro, now negotiates sanctions reliefContinue Reading
OPINION — “This memorandum consolidates approximately ten separate outdated memoranda that were inadequate to address the current, complex unmanned aircraft system (UAS) threat environment. The new guidance affects a culture shift by empowering commanders to unambiguously apply their authority to mitigate threat UAS. Our message is clear, Department of WarContinue Reading
DEEP DIVE — On February 13, nighttime light emissions across major Cuban cities had dropped as much as 50 percent compared to historical averages — the latest chapter in a crisis that has seen the island’s grid collapse multiple times over the past year. As desperate citizens in half theContinue Reading
OPINION — For years, media literacy has been treated as the solution to misinformation. I’ve advocated that position as well. Teach people to question headlines. Encourage them to check sources. Help them recognize bias and emotional manipulation. All of that still matters. In fact, it matters more than ever. IContinue Reading
OPINION — In recent months, U.S. policy debates have increasingly acknowledged that the decisive contests of the 21st century will not be fought primarily on conventional battlefields. They will be fought in the cognitive domain, through influence, perception, legitimacy, and decision velocity. This recognition is important and depends on anContinue Reading