Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment The Cipher Brief

ABC News journalist George Stephanopoulos joins us to discuss his new book “The Situation Room: The Inside Story of President in Crisis.” As someone who became intimately familiar with the SITROOM during the Clinton administration, Stephanopoulos is our guide with stories about the crisis management center came to be created under JFK and shares dramatic stories of hinge points in history that were seen within the walls of this small but pivotal part of the Executive Mansion.

Dmitri Alperovitch likes to sound alarm bells when it comes to global security. He -- like many others -- started piecing together what was happening along the Russian border with Ukraine in late 2021 and predicted that Russia would indeed invade Ukraine. In his new book, World on the Brink, Dmitri shares his thoughts on how World War III might begin ... and no surprise, Taiwan is at the heart of it.
Here's my conversation with Silverado Policy Accelerator Executive Chairman and Cyber Initiatives Group Principal, Dmitri Alperovitch on his new book, World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the 21st Century.

Long-time New York Times correspondent joins us to his new book: “New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West”  In the book, Sanger talks about the perilous times the United States finds itself – and the world of trouble presented by Russia, China  - and their military, economic, and technological challenges.
Read The Cipher Brief print review of the book here.

CNN anchor and Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto is out with a new book called “The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China and the Next World War.” Drawing on his reporting from current hot spots like Ukraine, Taiwan and the Middle East - and in depth interviews with top U.S. and foreign leaders, Sciutto has written about the precarious nature of global security and how developments in each of these hot spots impacts the other.  We’ll talk to him about how Chinese President Xi and Russian President Putin have similar views about their destinies in expanding their countries borders.

Cipher Brief Expert Retired Admiral Jim Stavridis has witnessed today’s complicated national security environment firsthand while he served in the Navy and now, as he helps others navigate it from the private sector. He has teamed up with author and former Marine Elliott Ackerman – who served in Iraq and Afghanistan - to foreshadow what national security threats are lurking around the corner and they’re using fiction to do it.  In the pair’s first book together, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, they examine - in page-turning fashion - how the U.S. might stumble into war with China.  In their new novel 2054, they revisit some of their favorite characters to examine how technology and civil conflict can be used as a weapon as great nations vie for power.

Veteran journalist Steve Coll is out with a new book dissecting the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein.  We talk with him about his discovery of unpublished and underreported information  which sheds new light into how “human error, cultural miscommunication, and hubris lead to one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our time.” After listening to the podcast, we recommend the review of “The Achilles Trap” that recently appeared in The Cipher Brief: https://www.thecipherbrief.com/book-review/the-cia-and-the-invasion-of-iraq