Through its publications, INSS provides rigorous, forward‑looking research and analysis on critical national security issues that support the joint warfighter and inform Department of War decision‑makers.
Nov. 24, 2025
Critical Technology Areas Part 2: Implications and Recommendations for the Warfighter and Warfighting
As noted in last week’s special edition Strategic Insights, the Department of War will focus upon furthering research, testing and use of six key domains of disruptive technology (viz., applied artificial intelligence [AI], biomanufacturing, contested logistics technologies, quantum and battlefield information dominance, scaled directed energy, and scaled hypersonics).
Nov. 21, 2025
Implications of a PRC Shift to a Launch-on-Warning Nuclear Posture
This Defense Threat Reduction Agency study assesses the prospects and implications of China’s adoption of a launch-on-warning (LOW) posture for U.S. national security objectives. It evaluates China’s ability to adopt a LOW posture, identifies the key design decisions, examines what a Chinese LOW posture might look like, and assesses the implications and identifies potential mitigation measures.
Nov. 18, 2025
Convergent Critical Technologies Part 1: The Integrative Transformation of Warfighting
The Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering’s designation of six Critical Technology Areas (CTAs; viz., Applied Artificial Intelligence, Biomanufacturing, Contested Logistics Technologies, Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance, Scaled Directed Energy, and Scaled Hypersonics) constitutes a fundamental conceptualization of how power will be projected, contested, and sustained across the conflict spectrum.
Darwin Monkey: Next Generation Neuromorphic Computing and Competition for Cognitive Capability and Control
The Darwin Monkey System represents a substantive pivot from conventional AI toward synthetic cognition through neuromorphic architectures that emulate the structural and functional dynamics of the brain.
Nov. 17, 2025
The Agentic Database and Military Command: A Perspective on Autonomous C2 Systems
The shift from passive databases to “active reasoning engines” in commercial agentic AI signals a fundamental transformation in how decisions are made, authority is exercised, and accountability is maintained.
The Logos and Limits of Artificial Cognition: The Exemplar of Military Use
As AI increasingly emulates tasks of human judgment, abstraction, and decision-making, it challenges foundational conceptions of mind, agency, and moral responsibility.
China’s "near space" legal warfare
A recurring Chinese narrative about so-called "near space" is an expression of the People's Liberation Army doctrine of Legal Warfare.
Keeping Turkey in the fold
Turkey has become one of the most active middle powers navigating the erosion of the post-Cold War order.
Nov. 6, 2025
We Can’t Buy Our Way Out: It’s Time to Think Differently
Current U.S. force structure and major platforms are likely to fail in the emerging operational environment.
Sept. 24, 2025
Beyond Mechanistic Control: Causal Decision Processing in Neuromorphic Military Artificial Intelligence
As we transition from traditional mechanistic AI architectures to those that are designed and developed to more closely mirror the complex causal dynamics of neural systems, military stake and shareholders (and oversight organizations) must confront new paradigms of autonomous decision-making that can challenge conventional understandings of predictability, command control, and accountability in AI.