Thomas Hegghammer talks to Aaron about his new paper, “Assessing the Islamic State’s Commitment to Attacking the West,” in Perspectives on Terrorism, co-authored with Petter Nesser. This episode also fea...

The war with the Islamic State turns one today, and yet we still have no authorization for the use of force against the group.

On this week's episode, Shane abandons Tamara and me and goes on vacation. His empty chair is filled by Dan Byman, who brings a large Yemeni dagger and a National Counterterrorism Center Calendar, which ...

In this episode Aaron talks to Jacob Zenn about the group commonly referred to as Boko Haram. They covered a variety of topics including:

Last week, the podcast featured Aspen Security Forum interviews with a trio of Obama administration national security officials. This week is Part II, wherein we share edited discussions at the Aspen Sec...

In this emergency podcast Aaron talks to J.M. Berger about the confirmed death of Mullah Omar. They covered a variety of topics related to his death and what it could mean for the broader Islamic State -...

In my humble opinion, this is the best episode yet of Rational Security. If you've never listened to it before, check this one out. Shane, Tamara, and I discuss whether notorious Taliban leader Mullah Om...

Our guest for episode 77 is Bruce Andrews, the deputy secretary of the Commerce Department. Alan Cohn and I pepper Bruce with questions about export controls on cybersecurity technology, stopping commerc...

This week on the show, Shane and I are abandoned by Tamara, who has run off to the Aspen Security Forum—to which neither of us were invited. So we bring back special guest Wells Bennett, and invite Lawfa...

This week, the Aspen Security Forum featured interviews with—among others—FBI Director James Comey, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, and NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers. I have edited these discussions down t...

This episode features part 2 of Aaron’s conversation with Don Rassler. If you haven’t heard part 1 you can find it here. This two part series is based on Don’s article, “Situating the Emergence of the Is...

Episode 76 of the podcast features the power couple of privacy and cybersecurity, Peter Swire and Annie Antón, both professors at Georgia Institute of Technology. I question them on topics from the USA F...

This episode features part one of an interview with Don Rassler based on his article “Situating the Emergence of the Islamic State of Khorasan,” for the CTC Sentinel. This part of the conversation covers...

While world powers and Iran were embroiled in last minute negotiations last week, Brookings hosted a panel discussion on the meaning of another power’s recent nuclear threats: Russia's. In recent months,...

Bitcoin and the blockchain – how do they work and what do they mean for financial and government services and for consumers? And who holds massive stores of bitcoin that can’t be spent without solving on...

This episode of the Jihadology Podcast features an interview with Erin Saltman on the report she co-authored with Melanie Smith, “‘Till Martyrdom Do Us Part’: Gender and the ISIS Phenomenon” (PDF). The c...

Last month, I attended a briefing given by members of the Virginia Cyber Commission hosted by the Northern Virginia Technology Council. I was impressed by what I heard. So we invited the Commission’s Exe...

This week on Rational Security, FBI Director James Comey goes to Capitol Hill to talk about “going dark,” and the gang discusses his reception in two Senate committees. Former officials are expressing co...

Our guest commentator for episode 74 is Catherine Lotrionte, a recognized expert on international cyberlaw and the associate director of the Institute for Law, Science and Global Security at Georgetown U...