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The latest Middle East developments sometimes leave us with more questions than answers. Former four-star Navy Admiral Mike Rogers sat with the Post's Anna Ahronheim to discuss strategy, defense, and more.
Rogers argues that the current ceasefire, while significant, leaves the most dangerous issues entirely unresolved: Iranian support for proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis remains untouched, ballistic missile programs are unaddressed, and without a rigorous verification regime, any nuclear agreement risks becoming little more than a gentleman's promise. His blunt assessment is that the region has bought time, not peace, and that the unresolved issues virtually guarantee a return to confrontation down the road.
What makes this interview essential viewing, however, is Rogers' deep dive into the shadow war that ran parallel to the kinetic conflict: cyber. Drawing on decades at the highest levels of American intelligence and military operations, the former Admiral explains why cyber deterrence has fundamentally failed, why Iran's cyber performance was more nuisance than superpower, and why the real danger isn't just offensive AI but the defensive gap that the security industry refuses to talk about.
He names the four cyber superpowers of the world (the answer may surprise you), breaks down how attribution shapes presidential decision-making, and makes a compelling case that nation-states and private companies need to stop treating cybersecurity as a technical problem and start treating it as a risk management crisis.
Rogers also turns his eye to the shifting geopolitical map around Israel, the quietly evolving role of Pakistan as a regional broker, the Gulf states rethinking their dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, and the future of the Abraham Accords under the pressure of war.
Having spent 37 years inside the US military and government apparatus, and now working with Tel Aviv-based firms at the intersection of cybersecurity and defense technology, Rogers speaks with the authority of someone who has been in the room where these decisions are made.
Host Anna Ahronheim keeps the conversation sharp, personal, and forward-looking, making this one of the most substantive conversations on regional security and cyber warfare you'll find anywhere this year.