28 December 2024

A Gift From Cipher Brief Experts: Reasons for Hope in 2025


In the last days of 2024, The Cipher Brief turned to our network of experts – who spend much of their time looking at the risks and threats facing the U.S. and the rest of world – and asked them a different question, more in line with the holiday season: What gives them hope?

While our focus – and theirs – is necessarily on war, cyberattacks, gray-zone tactics, the “Axis of Authoritarians,” and so forth, here we asked the experts to reflect on one specific question: What, if anything, on the national/global security landscape gives you reason for hope?

Their answers covered a range of issues and parts of the world – from the spirit of innovation to advances in AI to the Middle East (yes, “hope” and “Middle East” were joined in more than one answer). Some offered several paragraphs; others a single sentence; one respondent – the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper – gave a two-word (and not so hopeful) answer.

Taken together, they have given us much to think about, as 2024 draws to a close and the new year beckons. We hope they add notes of hope to your holiday season as well.

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