History

Harvey Floods Houston: Reflecting on Katrina

The tragedy unfolding in Houston brought back memories of Katrina and Houston's response to the plight of evacuees from Louisiana. It was a massive effort that consumed the city for weeks. The scale of it all would change Houston forever.

Covert Contact

System Failure: It Only Gets More Difficult from Here

What if Charlottesville and the dysfunction in Washington are not aberrations? What happens if the challenges facing society and governance only get more difficult for failing systems to tackle?

Guest Posts

Carlos

In my office, visitors are surprised to see that I have a copy of one of my own books signed by Ilyich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as “Carlos the Jackal.”

Covert Contact

Iran in the Age of Trump

In episode 70 Phillip Smyth joins me for a quick look at how the change in U.S. leadership is impacting the balance of sectarian power and our policy toward Iran.

Covert Contact

Securing Data, Communications, and Identity with Keybase

Keybase is a small but ambitious company that aims to make cyrpto available and virtually seamless for everyone. Their approach to this problem, a massively challenging one that hasn’t really been cracked to date, has been creative.

Covert Contact

Egyptian, Muslim, American

My friend Angie Gad joins me for episode 68 of Covert Contact to discuss growing up as a first generation Egyptian-American Muslim. We cover a lot of ground in this episode including her family's struggle to maintain and establish roots in two very different worlds

Covert Contact

The Manchester Attack

Regular contributor William J. Tucker joined me to examine the Manchester Attack about 24 hours after it occurred.

Covert Contact

Intelligence Analysis: Feedback, Bias, and Other Challenges

In this episode we discuss bias and how it can impact both the production and consumption of intelligence products.

Art

Warren Ellis at Google

I'm a huge fan of Warren Ellis, his no-nonsense views on technology, and the way he weaves it all into his work. He is able to sweep away the hype while clearly and creatively envisioning potential outcomes (and, of course, having some dark fun with it).

Covert Contact

Counterintelligence in the Trump Era

William J. Tucker, regular contributor on counterintelligence topics for Blogs of War and Covert Contact, joins me to discuss the unprecedented challenge the Trump presidency poses to both U.S. counterintelligence and the intelligence community as whole.

Updates

Blogs of War Gets a New Look (and a New Platform)

I've periodically checked in on the Ghost publishing platform as a potential solution over the past couple of years. I wasn't quite ready to make the move in 2015 or 2016 but I recently checked back in on the project and liked what I saw.

Guest Posts

Dereliction of Duty

Considering Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster's recent appointment to the position of National Security Advisor, it is prudent to revisit his book Dereliction of Duty.

Covert Contact

Exploring Divergent Options with Phil Walter

Divergent Options is a new effort to build a body of concise analysis (1,000 words or less) on national security topics from a global talent pool. The project was launched by Phil Walter and he joins me on Covert Contact to discuss the effort and the important gap that it is seeking to fill.

Iraq

Ambassador Lukman Faily on Iraq's Future, the Travel Ban, and ISIS

Lukman Faily served as Iraq’s ambassador to the United States for three years. He left that post, and the Iraqi Foreign Service, in 2016. A lot has transpired since our last chat and we plan to follow this short exchange with a more in depth discussion on Covert Contact soon.

Covert Contact

Understanding the Pace and Scope of Technology Driven Change with Andrew Trabulsi

Andrew Trabulsi, entrepreneur, consultant, and co-editor of Warlords, Inc.: Black Markets, Broken States, and the Rise of the Warlord Entrepreneur, joins me again for a discussion about the inherent challenges in understanding and forecasting technology-driven change.

Updates

Covert Contact Returns - And Other News

Covert Contact returned today with a new episode that was originally recorded (but not released) in October. Andrew Trabulsi joins me to discuss the challenges inherent in forecasting technology-driven change and we close

Estonia

Estonian Defense League: Standing Against Russian Aggression Despite the Odds

Tiny Estonia has only one potential path to war but it is a terrifying one: Estonia, a NATO member with a population of 1.3 million people and a standing army of about

Diplomacy

Book Excerpt: The Embassy: A Story of War and Diplomacy

The Embassy is a graphic, cinematic retelling of the harrowing climax of the Liberian civil war and the U.S. and West African role in ending it. Through interviews with the Ambassador and

Covert Contact

Russia, Trump, and Hillary: What a Debate

In episode 62 I look at what may have been the most bizarre presidential debate in U.S. history. Covert Contact regular William J. Tucker joins me later in the show to discuss

Updates

Podcasting the 2016 Insanity

Podcast episodes for the first and second presidential debates are up. My thoughts are mostly confined to the national security elements and fairly reserved. That’s more of a reflection on my weariness

Covert Contact

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump: The First Debate

I’m a little under the weather but here is a short wrap-up of last night’s debate.

Covert Contact

Putin’s Struggle for Relevancy and Power with William J. Tucker

Covert Contact regular William J. Tucker joins me for a quick look at Putin’s outlook and the challenges he faces despite domestic political wins, successful rounds of international meddling, and attempts to

Covert Contact

Citizen Soldiers: Service and Sacrifice with Wendy R. Anderson

Wendy R. Anderson, Managing Director of Military and National Security Initiatives at Strong Eagle Media, joins me to discuss her company’s amazing new documentary Citizen Soldier and her previous work inside senior

Covert Contact

Inside the President’s Daily Brief with David Priess

Dr. David Priess delivered the Presidents Daily Brief during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and has produced the definitive history on the subject with The President’s Book of Secrets:

Covert Contact

Fragmented Realities with Robert Rath

Freelance writer and Zam.com columnist Robert Rath joins me in episode 57 to review the latest advances in virtual and augmented reality. Augmented reality, in the form of Pokemon Go, has captured