The Cipher Brief

Global Intelligence Report for Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Classified documents reveal high-level approval for covert Chinese military training of Russian forces. U.S. and Iranian of ...
Opinion
The Cipher BriefOpinion

AI Agents Need Accountability That Travels With Them

Most enterprise AI agents today are still being deployed in controlled environments. They sit inside a platform, perform a defined task and operate under the identity and access controls of that ...
The Cipher Brief

When Hackers Get AI Co-Pilots: Frontier AI and the National Security Clock

Five intelligence services rarely speak with one voice. When they warn the window of vulnerability has narrowed to months, the real question is whether the defenders can move as fast as the ...
The Cipher Brief

Transparency Matters: Inside Canada's UFO Files

Disclosing Government Files on What Is Happening in Our SkiesBy Chris A. Rutkowski / Dundurm PressReviewed by: Jean-Thomas NicoleThe Reviewer — Jean-Thomas Nicole is a Policy Advisor with Public ...
Opinion
The Cipher BriefOpinion

The War Before the War Has Already Begun

There are 65 active state-based conflicts in the world today, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. That is not 65 separate crises. It is 65 living laboratories.The contest that matters is ...
The Cipher Brief

Congress Questions Pentagon Spending—and the Future of Trump’s Battleship

I’m deeply concerned that the Presidential proposal for $350 billion mandatory funding [to be carried in a reconciliation bill and not an appropriations bill] for defense will have no Appropriations ...
The Cipher Brief

America's Empty CT Chair

The world's counterterrorism chiefs are meeting in New York this week. We brought a list of demands and not much else.A plot ...
The Cipher Brief

Mark Kelton

Kelton retired from CIA as a senior executive with 34 years of experience in intelligence operations. He is a partner at the FiveEyes Group; a member of the Board of Trustees of Valley Forge Military ...
The Cipher Brief

Paul Kolbe

Paul Kolbe is former director of The Intelligence Project at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Kolbe also led BP’s Global Intelligence and Analysis team ...
The Cipher Brief

Frank Archibald

Frank Archibald retired from the CIA in 2015 as the Director of the National Clandestine Service an assignment in which he led all of CIA's operations worldwide. His 31 years of CIA service included ...
The Cipher Brief

Doug Wise

Douglas H. Wise served as Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from August 2014 until August 2016. Following 20 years of active duty in the Army where he served as an infantry and ...
The Cipher Brief

Greg Poling

Gregory B. Poling is director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and a fellow with the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. He ...