Briefing Books

“Briefing Books” are one-stop resources covering a full range of topics in U.S. foreign policy. Containing from 5 to 100+ documents, each briefing book features an introductory essay, individual document descriptions, related photo or video content, plus links for further reading.
Presidential Control of Nuclear Weapons: The "Football"
| Briefing Book
Online blustering about nuclear “buttons” has brought new attention to the issue of presidential control over nuclear weapons, and to the special satchel or “Football” of emergency and nuclear…
The U.S. and Climate Change: Washington’s See-Saw on Global Leadership
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., September 24, 2018 – President George H.W. Bush initially sought a leadership role for the United States on the environment, according to declassified documents obtained and posted…
U.S. Nuclear War Plan Option Sought Destruction of China and Soviet Union as “Viable” Societies
| Briefing Book
U.S.
Joint Task Force ARES and Operation GLOWING SYMPHONY: Cyber Command’s Internet War Against ISIL
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., August 13, 2018 – U.S.
Gina Haspel CIA Torture Cables Declassified
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., August 10, 2018 – Current CIA director Gina Haspel described graphic acts of deliberate physical torture including the waterboarding of a suspected Al-Qa’ida terrorist under her…
Excessive U.S. sanctions could push Iran “over the brink”: UAE official to U.S. in 1995
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., August 8, 2018 – U.S.
Eligible Receiver 97: Seminal DOD Cyber Exercise Included Mock Terror Strikes and Hostage Simulations
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., August 1, 2018 – An early classified Defense Department cybersecurity exercise named “Eligible Receiver 97” (ER97) featured a previously unpublicized series of mock terror attacks,…
Japan Plutonium Overhang Origins and Dangers Debated by U.S. Officials
| Briefing Book
Japan Announces Policy Change on Plutonium Overhang Possible Turning Point for Nuclear Nonproliferation Efforts
US Promoted Close Ties to Indonesian Military as Suharto’s Rule Came to an End in Spring 1998
| Briefing Book
Declassified documents detail US policy in period leading up to, following Suharto’s May, 1998 ouster, knowledge of military involvement in student abductions and killings.
"Narcopols": Medellín Cartel “Financed” Senate Campaign of Former President Álvaro Uribe, Colombian Senators Told U.S. Embassy
| Briefing Book
 A Colombian senator told the U.S. Embassy in 1993 that the founders of the Medellín drug cartel “financed” the election campaign of then-senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, according to…
Anatoly S. Chernyaev Diary, 1978
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., May 25, 2018 - The National Security Archive marks what would have been Anatoly Sergeyevich Chernyaev’s 97th birthday today with the publication for the first time in English of his…
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Mexican Amendments: The Negotiating Record
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., May 24, 2018 - The controversial Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, requiring "good faith" disarmament measures, arose from the "fear" by non-nuclear weapons states "of…
Oliver North’s Checkered Iran-Contra Record
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., May 16, 2018 – Incoming National Rifle Association President Oliver North’s conduct during the infamous Iran-Contra affair featured a pattern of deliberate deception, a…
The Guatemala Genocide Ruling, Five Years Later
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., May 10, 2018—Five years ago today, one of the most celebrated human rights trials in Latin America came to a stunning conclusion when Guatemalan dictator, retired Army general, and…
The CIA Black Sites Program and the Gina Haspel Nomination
| Briefing Book
Today’s nomination hearing for Gina Haspel to be CIA director provides an opportunity for the agency and Haspel to fill in the blanks on the CIA “black sites” and interrogation program.  The…
Gina Haspel’s CIA Torture File
| Briefing Book
The Trump administration’s nominee to be CIA director, Gina Haspel, personally supervised the torture of a CIA detainee in 2002 leading to at least three waterboard sessions, subsequently drafted the…
Cuba and The U.S.: ‘Intimate Diplomacy’
| Briefing Book
Washington D.C., April 20, 2018 –  Back-channel diplomacy, conducted by an ABC News reporter named Lisa Howard resolved a potential crisis with Cuba in mid-1964, according to documents posted…
CIA Debriefed Soviet H-Bomb Eye-Witness in 1957
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., April 6, 2018 – Secret CIA interviews with East bloc scientists and technicians in the mid-1950s yielded invaluable insights into Soviet nuclear capabilities, according to recently…
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the German Nuclear Question Part II, 1965-1969
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., March 21, 2018 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), widely accepted today as a global standard for international nuclear policy, was in fact a source of significant tension…
NATO Expansion: What Yeltsin Heard
| Briefing Book
Washington, D.C., March 16, 2018 – Declassified documents from U.S. and Russian archives show that U.S.