Author profile

Follow author updates

Guy Taylor

Guy Taylor is the National Security Editor at The Washington Times, overseeing the paper's State Department, Pentagon and intelligence coverage and driving the daily Threat Status newsletter. He has reported from dozens of countries and been a guest on the BBC, CNN, NPR, FOX, C-SPAN and The McLaughlin Group.
A series Mr. Taylor led on Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election was recognized with a Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency, and a Society for Professional Journalists award. In 2012, he won a Virginia Press Association award reporting from Mexico.Prior to joining The Times in 2011, Mr. Taylor was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Fund For Investigative Journalism. He wrote for a variety publications, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to Salon, Reason, Prospect, the Daily Star of Beirut, the Jerusalem Post and the St. Petersburg Times. He also served as an editor at World Politics Review, wrote for America's Quarterly and produced videos and features for Agence France-Presse.Mr. Taylor holds an M.S. in Global Security Studies from Angelo State University and a B.A. from Clark University. He was part of a team who won a Society of Professional Journalists award for their reporting on the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
He can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.

Threat Status Influencers Videos

Go behind the scenes with Washington Times National Security Editor Guy Taylor as he interviews officials and experts directly involved in the most important global security, foreign policy, and technology issues impacting America's position in the world.

Threat Status Podcast

An edgy and informative look at the biggest U.S. national security and geopolitical issues making headlines right now. Less about hot takes and more about depth, the Threat Status podcast is helmed by veteran Washington Times journalists Ben Wolfgang and Guy Taylor and features regular appearances by insiders with expertise on war, politics and global affairs.

Special Report: Vlad's Vengeance

Inside Putin's 'hybrid warfare' on the U.S. Click here to read more.

Articles by Guy Taylor

John Kerry: U.S. open to Russia hitting Islamic State in Syria

Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday the Obama administration is "prepared to welcome" the Russian military's bombardment of al Qaeda and Islamic State targets in Syria, but will continue for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

September 30, 2015

Obama admin sanctions ISIS facilitators, attempts to cut terror group’s funding

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it has identified 15 key Islamic State facilitators with a range of backgrounds -- from Yemen to the U.K., Indonesia, Bosnia, Pakistan, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia -- and will level sanctions against them with the goal of blocking their and the terrorist group's access to the international financial system.

September 29, 2015

Vladimir Putin’s plans for Russian military in Syria has U.N., Obama on edge

Vladimir Putin's speech Monday is shaping up to be biggest of this year's U.N. General Assembly, as Obama administration officials brace for the Russian leader to lambaste their failed Syria policy and call on the world to get behind his plan for saving the war-torn Middle East from the clutches of the Islamic State.

September 27, 2015

Philip Gordon, former top Obama adviser, slams White House Syria strategy

President Obama's former top adviser on Middle East policy says the time has come for the administration to rethink its demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad must step down -- a stipulation that has underpinned the White House's approach to Syria's war for the past four years.

September 25, 2015

Ashton Carter: Russian buildup in Syria could ‘pour gasoline’ on ISIS

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says Russia's expanding military buildup in Syria could "pour gasoline on the [Islamic State] phenomenon," because Moscow is bent on backing one of the extremist group's top enemies -- embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.

September 24, 2015

John Kerry hails Colombia’s peace deal with FARC rebel group

The mood will be one of optimism when Secretary of State John F. Kerry meets on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly next week with Colombia's president, who just announced a major breakthrough toward a deal to end the nation's decades-old war with the leftist FARC rebel group.

September 24, 2015

Syrian refugees being shunned by Gulf states

The refugee crisis surging from the Middle East to Europe has ignited a heated debate over the extent to which the Persian Gulf's wealthiest nations -- namely Saudi Arabia -- are doing enough to take in and help the hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

September 23, 2015

Susan Rice: Obama to press China on North Korea nukes

President Obama will seek to enlist China's help in steering North Korea away from developing more nuclear weapons when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the White House this week, trying to seize on Beijing's "fulcrum of influence" over Pyongyang's reclusive regime.

September 21, 2015

Vladimir Putin seeks to ease Israeli fears in rare meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to worry about the Russian military buildup in Syria as the two men held talks in Moscow on Monday, their first face-to-face meeting in nearly two years.

September 21, 2015

President’s Daily Brief documents, newly declassified by CIA, reveal intel preferences

The CIA's release last week of more than 19,000 pages of declassified material has provided a window into one of Washington's most secretive documents, the President's Daily Brief, or PDB, which intelligence officials say has evolved since its creation in the early 1960s.

September 20, 2015

CIA releases tranche of secret documents, but keeps juiciest nuggets classified

On the morning of Oct. 18, 1962, 36 hours into the Cuban Missile Crisis, the CIA presented President John F. Kennedy with the sobering news that seven out of 12 potential Soviet launch sites in Cuba "now have missiles on launcher," and at least some of them are "probably operational."

September 16, 2015

John Brennan, CIA director, says al Qaeda still major threat despite Islamic State’s rise

Osama bin Laden's original al Qaeda network remains a major long-term national security threat and could surge back into global prominence even as the appeal of the newer, rival Islamic State movement spreads in the heart of the Middle East, CIA Director John Brennan said Tuesday.

September 15, 2015

John Brennan: U.S. watching for nuclear cooperation between Iran, North Korea

The Iran nuclear deal is silent on an issue that the CIA and proliferation experts are concerned about: that Tehran may outsource parts of its nuclear and missiles program to the secretive regime in North Korea, which on Tuesday committed itself to producing more fuel for nuclear bombs.

September 15, 2015

Ayman Al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda leader, calls for lone-wolf attacks in U.S., unity among terrorists

The latest audio recording from al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri contains the most explicit appeal to date for unity between rival jihadi groups worldwide, shedding new light on the complex, wary relations between Osama bin Laden's original terror network and the newer Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

September 14, 2015

Microsoft woes dent U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement as Obama pushes Trans-Pacific Partnership

U.S. and South Korean officials signed a "memorandum of understanding" on antitrust issues in Washington, casting a spotlight on the inner workings of an increasingly complex trade relationship between the two nations that critics say has benefited Koreans far more than Americans since the Obama administration pushed through a much-touted free trade deal three years ago.

September 13, 2015

Russia calls on world to back Syrian military

Despite pushback from Washington and NATO over the Russia's widening military buildup in Syria, Moscow is now calling on world powers to help arm government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, calling them the "most efficient and powerful ground force" in the fight against the Islamic State.

September 11, 2015

FBI, CIA, NSA all say no 9/11 terror threat

The directors of the FBI, CIA and NSA said Thursday that U.S. intelligence officials have not identified any specific or credible threat to the American homeland in connection with Friday's 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

September 10, 2015

U.S. under pressure as Syrian refugee crisis balloons

A top Republican lawmaker warned Wednesday President Obama may be preparing to open "the floodgates" for Syrian war refugees to enter the U.S., even as the administration's top spy said intelligence officials have a "huge concern" the Islamic State aims to hide terrorists among the waves of people fleeing the conflict in the heart of the Middle East.

September 9, 2015

James Clapper: Islamic State could infiltrate U.S., West through migrants fleeing from Syria

America's top spy said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence officials have a "huge concern" about Islamic State's ability to infiltrate waves of Syrian war refugees flowing into Europe and potentially the United States as pressure mounts on Western nations to take in a growing number of people fleeing the conflict in the heart of the Middle East.