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Guy Taylor

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

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mualem, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's Kremlin, Russia on Monday, June 29, 2015. (Alexei Nikolsky/RIA Novosti, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) ** FILE **

Russia emerges as key player in new round of Syria diplomacy

Moscow is increasingly emerging as a center of diplomacy on Syria's four-year-old civil war, with the Obama administration sending a key emissary to the Russian capital discuss the conflict on Friday, following recent visits by high-level Saudi, Jordanian and Iranian officials -- as well as key members of the Syrian political opposition. Published August 28, 2015

FILE - In this file photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as they walk in Geneva, Switzerland, ahead of the next round of nuclear discussions. Should the talks over Iran's nuclear program collapse, the alternatives are not appealing: the war option that the United States has kept on the table has few fans, and the world does not seem willing to truly bring Iran to its knees by shutting off the flow of capital and goods. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)

More than 200 retired generals and admirals urge Congress to reject Iran deal

The number of retired generals and admirals signing on to a letter to Congress rejecting the Iran nuclear deal continued to swell Thursday, with some 214 of the former high-level U.S. military officers putting their stamp on the document that asserts the "agreement will enable Iran to become far more dangerous" and "introduce new threats to American interests." Published August 27, 2015

Saudi-U.S. ties will be under scrutiny again when 79-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud makes an expected visit to Washington next month, his first since ascending to the throne. (Associated Press)

Saudi Arabia royal family’s grasp on power threatened by drop in oil prices

The sharp drop in oil prices is starting to bite for the world's longtime top oil-producing nation, Saudi Arabia, and could threaten the seemingly unshakable social contract that has seen the kingdom's royal family rule for nearly a century with almost no opposition or oversight from the nation's masses. Published August 26, 2015

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, second from left, watches a Noh performance by local college students, with monk of Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist temple, Eigen Onishi, left, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, second from right,  at the temple in Kyoto, western Japan, Friday, March 20, 2015. Noh is a form of classical Japanese musical drama. Kiyomizu-dera is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Kyoto's most famous vistas. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Caroline Kennedy oversight of Japanese embassy slammed in IG report

The State Department's internal watchdog leveled biting criticism at the management style of U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy in a new audit on Tuesday, citing "confusion among staff" and "major management challenges" in key offices at the Tokyo embassy. Published August 25, 2015

Demonstrators chant pro-Islamic State group slogans as they wave the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad on June 16, 2014. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Islamic State cell raided in Spain and Morocco; 14 suspects arrested

Authorities in Spain and Morocco rounded up 14 suspected members of an Islamic State cell on Tuesday in a wide-ranging joint operation that saw one suspect detained near Madrid and the others taken into custody in several Moroccan cities. Published August 25, 2015

Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard watch a missile launch in July 2012. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Iran planning ballistic missile war games

A top commander in the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said Friday that Iran is preparing to hold massive "ballistic missiles war games," following an announcement that Tehran plans to begin phasing in a new generation of such missiles. Published August 21, 2015

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on July 19, 2015. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Israel fights back, launches airstrikes at Syria

The Israeli Air Force launched a second wave of airstrikes on southwestern Syria on Friday morning in retaliation to a barrage of rockets that hit Israel a day earlier -- the first time since 1973 that rockets from Syrian territory have soared into Israel. Published August 21, 2015

Firefighters were unable to save a house during shelling Monday night in Donetsk, Ukraine. The artillery exchange between government troops and Russia-backed rebels killed several people. (Associated Press)

Russia-Ukraine clashes spark fears Vladimir Putin may greenlight offensive

With the Obama administration's attention focused on crises elsewhere, the 6-month-old fragile cease-fire between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia separatists has deteriorated steadily in recent weeks, reigniting fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to greenlight a fresh offensive to seize more territory across the border. Published August 19, 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre, sits on board a bathyscaphe as it plunges into the Black sea along the coast of Sevastopol, Crimea, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. President Vladimir Putin plunged into the Black Sea to see the wreckage of a sunk ancient merchant ship which was found in the end of May. (Alexei Nikolsky/RIA-Novosti, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

China, Russia to launch largest-ever joint navy exercise

The Chinese and Russian navies are gearing up for their largest ever joint exercises, slated to begin Thursday in the Pacific with more than 20 ships from the two nations and to feature anti-submarine operations as well as a joint-beach landing. Published August 18, 2015

Syrian rebels have voiced serious reservations about a U.S. program to train moderate opposition fighters in Jordan, dismissing it as a drop in the ocean that would not change realities on the ground. (Associated Press)

Obama’s Syria ‘safe zone’ plan lacks moderate rebels needed to carry it out

The Obama administration's move to partner with Turkey to carve out a "safe zone" in northern Syria is drawing increasing criticism from national security insiders on both the left and right who see a gaping hole in the plan: There aren't enough U.S.-friendly rebels on the ground to secure and hold the territory. Published August 10, 2015

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter (Associated Press) **FILE**

Russians suspected in Pentagon email hack

Following warnings from top military officials about the growing threat of cyberattacks on Defense Department networks, it was revealed Thursday that Pentagon was forced to take its Joint Staff unclassified email system offline last month after it was accessed by alleged Russian hackers. Published August 6, 2015

In this Monday, June 16, 2014 file photo, demonstrators chant pro-Islamic State group slogans as they wave the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/File)

U.S. should embed military advisers to fight Islamic State, think tank says

The U.S. should embed military advisers at the battalion level in Iraq and begin directly arming the nation's Kurdish militias and Sunni tribal fighters, according a policy brief issued Thursday by an influential Washington think tank that asserts the Obama administration's current efforts to counter the Islamic State are "not adequate to the task." Published August 6, 2015

Rep. Michael T. McCaul, Texas Republican. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

More U.S.-based jihadi terror cases in 2015 than in any year since 9/11: report

There have been more U.S.-based jihadi terror cases in 2015 than in any full year since 9/11, according to a "Terror Threat Snapshot" report released Tuesday by the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who asserts that U.S. officials must "do more to take the fight to the enemy overseas at its source." Published August 4, 2015

A deadly attack on a Tunisian beach was just one of three from Europe to the Middle East on June 26 after an Islamic State call to violence. Some attacks by far-flung affiliates have targeted Westerners, while others are aimed at Shiite Muslims living in Sunni-majority nations. (Associated Press)

Islamic State attacks beyond Syria, Iraq prompt U.S. concern

A surge in attacks claimed by Islamic State fighters in nations beyond Syria and Iraq is prompting concern among U.S. intelligence officials, who say the pattern fits into the extremist group's ambition to grow a network of affiliates, or "provinces," from North Africa to Asia. Published August 3, 2015