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A Wartime Budget Without an Innovation Strategy

OPINION — “The use cases that help to drive the research agenda can come from a variety of different settings…We need to acknowledge that it's okay [...] More

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The Cognitive Battlefield is Now Decisive Terrain

OPINION -- Senior policymakers, military leaders, technologists and narrative strategists had one thing on their minds as they gathered in a Reston [...] More

Defending the Homeland: Pentagon Shifts Strategy on Drone Threats

OPINION — “This memorandum consolidates approximately ten separate outdated memoranda that were inadequate to address the current, complex unmanned [...] More

A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, flanked by two F-22 Raptor fighter jets, flies over Washington, D.C., during Independence Day celebrations on July 4, 2025.

Global Intelligence Report for Thursday, January 15, 2026

07:18 America/New_York Thursday, January 15 [...] More

People gather during protest on January 8, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. Demonstrations have been ongoing since December, triggered by soaring inflation and the collapse of the rial, and have expanded into broader demands for political change.

Global Intelligence Report for Wednesday, January 14, 2026

07:24 America/New_York Wednesday, January 14 [...] More

How China Built AI Dominance on Stolen American Silicon

How China Built AI Dominance on Stolen American Silicon

DEEP DIVE — Federal prosecutors in Texas, in December, unsealed charges and related details exposing a sprawling scheme that quietly siphoned some of [...] More

Agentic AI and the “Human-in-the-Loop” Luxury in Modern Defense

THE IRON TRIANGLE — Welcome to the inaugural edition of “The Iron Triangle”, my new Cipher Brief column that serves the three pillars of modern [...] More

Building U.S. Drone Dominance Brick by Brick

OPINION — One of the things I loved about LEGO as a child was the ability to mix and match an endless amount of parts to create unique builds. [...] More

An MH-6 Little Bird helicopter, piloted by members of the U.S. Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), flies overhead during a capabilities demonstration at Special Operations Forces (SOF) Week at the Tampa Convention Center on May 8, 2024 in Tampa, Florida.

Global Intelligence Report for Wednesday, December 24, 2025

07:20 America/New_York Wednesday, December 24 [...] More

Modeling the Earth with AI is Now a Strategic Intelligence Imperative

EXPERT OPINION / PERSPECTIVE — We are currently witnessing a mobilization of technical ambition reminiscent of the Manhattan Project, a realization [...] More

Members of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) patrol near a Lowe's hardware store in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 3, 2025.

Global Intelligence Report for Monday, December 22, 2025

07:23 America/New_York Monday, December 22 [...] More

Echoes of 1940: Learning from an Ally at War and Preparing the U.S. for the Next Fight

Echoes of 1940: Learning from an Ally at War and Preparing the U.S. for the Next Fight

EXPERT OPINION / PERSPECTIVE — Eighty-five years ago, as the United States cautiously explored an expanded alliance with Great Britain, our own [...] More

America’s Antibiotic Weakness Is a National Security Blindspot

OPINION – Offshoring and outsourcing antibiotic production to China and India is putting America’s access to lifesaving medicines at risk. It’s time [...] More