Daniel N. Hoffman

Why a strong NATO is more important than ever

At the NATO summit last month, for the first time the alliance had publicly and explicitly confronted the new "axis of tyranny" -- the deepening collaboration between Russia, North Korea, China and Iran.

July 25, 2024

Putin, having miscalculated, is increasingly desperate

There's a popular expression in Finland that best characterizes Russian President Vladimir Putin's national security strategy: "Hata ei lue lakia" -- "In desperate times, law does not matter."

July 11, 2024

Being curious and not judgmental

"Be curious, not judgmental."

June 27, 2024

Don’t let Putin bolster weak hand in Ukraine with nuclear bluff

Seeking to buttress his self-proclaimed image as the defender of a besieged Russia, President Vladimir Putin told voters that the Kremlin would be ready for nuclear war with the West.

June 13, 2024

Profiles in courage as Rees family confronts cancer — again

A few days ago, I learned that my friend Erik Rees' wife, Stacey, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She will undergo surgery and radiation on June 4.

May 30, 2024

Speaker Johnson offers a lesson in the power of intellectual honesty

Training in clandestine operations in the earliest days of my CIA career was a formative experience, and not just because I learned how to recruit spies and steal secrets.

May 16, 2024

Iran-Israel clashes show tricky dynamics of deterrence

Speaking at the George W. Bush Presidential Center last month, CIA Director William Burns declared that Iran's recent unprecedented attack on Israel had "turned out to be a spectacular failure."

May 2, 2024

Bringing back Americans unlawfully detained in Russia

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Russian President Vladimir Putin nominally resigned from the KGB with the rank of lieutenant colonel. But he never really left the KGB.

April 18, 2024

Putin’s failed blame game in terror attack exposes brittle regime

Even before the terrorists who slaughtered concertgoers at Moscow's Crocus City Mall were apprehended, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused the government of Ukraine of being responsible.

April 4, 2024

Perils in cyberspace expand as dictators unite against U.S.

One of the more ominous consequences of Russian leader Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the most destructive land war in Europe since World War II, has been the tectonic shift in the geopolitical landscape it has caused.

March 21, 2024

Don’t be fooled — Putin is losing and Ukraine deserves our support

It's worth reminding ourselves that just two years ago, the U.S. and its NATO allies expected Kyiv to fall in a matter of days after Russia launched its brutal invasion.

March 7, 2024

Iran has nothing to fear, everything to gain from low-level proxy war

Last week, Iran marked the 45th anniversary of the end of its 1979 Islamic Revolution with a massive military parade, while crowds burned U.S. and Israeli flags and shouted retread slogans.

February 22, 2024

CIA recruitment videos target Russians put off by Putin’s follies

Having served in the KGB and as director of Russia's Federal Security Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin naturally turns to cloak-and-dagger espionage to take the fight to his adversaries, foreign and domestic.

February 8, 2024

For the U.S., going it alone is not an option

After spilling so much blood and treasure in the "forever wars" of Afghanistan and Iraq, many Americans want to avoid becoming entangled in world affairs. But just as in the 1920s and 1930s, storm clouds have gathered.

January 25, 2024

Threat alert for U.S. is again ‘blinking red’ in Gaza

Iran's proxy terrorists in Iraq and Syria, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis, represent a real and present danger to the U.S., the region and the global economy.

January 11, 2024

Better intelligence needed to keep a world in crisis from getting worse

At their recent meeting in San Francisco, Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly told President Biden that China would one day reunify Taiwan with mainland China.

December 28, 2023

What the CIA can teach us about caring for one another

A few years back, when I was serving as station chief in a South Asian war zone, my CIA colleague Sean visited our town house late one evening to drop off a present for my older son, who was celebrating his fifth birthday.

December 14, 2023

Mideast war shines a spotlight on TikTok’s dangers

Over the past few weeks, the social media site TikTok has spread a plethora of disinformation and propaganda, including misleading posts about the war between Israel and Hamas.

November 30, 2023

U.S. must be prepared to defeat Putin’s axis of tyranny

The great Prussian general and military strategist Carl von Clausewitz once described war as "the realm of uncertainty" where "chance makes everything more uncertain and interferes with the course of events."

November 16, 2023

Tying shoes, shaping lives: Honoring an uncle and a Marine

Years ago, when my sons were both in elementary school, they knew my brother-in-law Paul as a kindhearted and patient uncle, one who made them tasty pancakes while their mother was in the hospital for cancer treatment.

November 9, 2023