Welcome to The Iron Triangle, the Cipher Brief column serving procurement officers tasked with buying the future, Investors funding the next generation of defense technology, and policy wonks analyzing its impact on the global order. COLUMN/EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — In its purest sense, autonomy is the condition of self-government. When weContinue Reading
OPINION — More than a century ago, Elihu Root warned that American power was outrunning the institutions meant to govern it. Root held unique authority on this question. As both Secretary of War and Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt, he helped design the institutions and doctrines that carried theContinue Reading
EXPERT INTERVIEW – U.S. officials say a second aircraft carrier will be deployed to the Middle East amid the administration’s efforts to pressure Iran to agree to restrictions on its nuclear program. The USS Gerald R. Ford is expected to join the USS Abraham Lincoln in a significant build-up ofContinue Reading
DEEP DIVE — Moscow has spent nearly four years burning through human resources in Ukraine, and now they’ve found a new way to fill the gaps of loss: exploiting the Global South. Russia is luring in thousands of men with promises of ‘work’ or ‘security,’ only to hand them aContinue Reading
Welcome to The Iron Triangle, the Cipher Brief column serving procurement officers tasked with buying the future, Investors funding the next generation of defense technology, and policy wonks analyzing its impact on the global order. COLUMN/EXPERT PERSPECTIVE — In its purest sense, autonomy is the condition of self-government. When weContinue Reading
OPINION — I had an unpleasant episode with Aldrich Ames which taught me some life lessons. I was a mid-level CIA analyst working Caucasus and Central Asian issues in the 1990s. My job responsibilities then included reviewing agency participation in conferences located in that part of the world, helping assureContinue Reading
DEEP DIVE — Moscow has spent nearly four years burning through human resources in Ukraine, and now they’ve found a new way to fill the gaps of loss: exploiting the Global South. Russia is luring in thousands of men with promises of ‘work’ or ‘security,’ only to hand them aContinue Reading
OPINION — “Militarily, the expiration [last Thursday] of New START [2010 Treaty with Russia] enables the United States to take parallel steps. We will complete our ongoing nuclear modernization programs that were initiated while New START entered into force. The United States also retains non-deployed nuclear capacity [some 1,900 storedContinue Reading
EXPERT INTERVIEW — General Paul Nakasone (ret.) has spent a career at the very center of America’s most invisible battlefields. He has served as both director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, two roles that sit at the intersection of intelligence, technology, and modern warfare.Continue Reading
OPINION — In China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “commands the gun”, and Chinese President Xi Jinping controls the one million members of the CCP. In October 2022, Mr. Xi was elected to an unprecedented third term as Secretary General of the CCP and President of the People’s Republic ofContinue Reading
THE BLUF / COLUMN — The Department of Defense is on a tear to revamp technology for warfighters. Secretary Hegseth signed an AI strategy on 9 January. Prior to that he called for an Enterprise Command and Control Program Office that would provide a real time battlespace picture for militaryContinue Reading
THE KREMLIN FILES / COLUMN — There are similarities among intelligence agencies worldwide. All professional services rely on tradecraft to recruit and manage assets. They all operate within bureaucratic systems and ultimately answer to political leaders. At a basic level, espionage tradecraft is a common professional language. However, Russian intelligenceContinue Reading
OPINION — On January 29, Europe found its voice against Iran’s apparatus of terror. The European Union (EU) announced that it is adding Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to its list of designated terrorist entities. The EU spent years mulling this step and taking half measures. Now, the EUContinue Reading