The Cipher Brief’s 10th Threat Conference: Optimism, Urgency, and the Imperative to Act

Which came first: The Cloister at Sea Island, the Office of Strategic Services, or the CIA? The resort wins. The Cloister first opened in 1928, fourteen years before the OSS and nineteen before CIA. It was a fitting setting for The Cipher Brief’s 10th Threat Conference, where conversations returned repeatedly to a question familiar to generations of intelligence professionals: how do we adapt quickly enough to meet the threats ahead?Over three and a half days, national security practitioners (we counted at least four four-star generals, over a dozen Chiefs of Station and three agency heads), industry leaders, journalists, and former senior officials examined what that adaptation requires. While the grounds were truly breathtaking, it was the windowless ballroom that drew in the national security diehards. Across discussions of threats to the US, artificial intelligence, commercial capabilities, intelligence tradecraft, and talent, we heard a common imperative: America’s national security institutions need to move faster. We left encouraged by the possibilities and concerned about the cost of delay. A few themes stood out, connecting what must change with what we cannot afford to lo...