Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS)

Institute for National Strategic Studies

The premier institute of strategic research at National Defense University
Institute for National Strategic Studies

The premier institute of strategic research at National Defense University
Institute for National Strategic Studies

The premier institute of strategic research at National Defense University
Institute for National Strategic Studies

The premier institute of strategic research at National Defense University

Soviet tanks roll through Red Square during Russia's Victory Day

The National Interest | Nov. 2, 2022

Can the West Manage Russia’s Decline?

Thomas F. Lynch III

Success in long-term great power competition with China requires that Washington address the strategic implications of Russian decline with a calculus befitting today’s multipolar environment.

Vladimir Putin meets in the Kremlin with the leaders of the
Federation Council, the State Duma, and dedicated committees of both chambers, December 25, 2018. (President of Russia Web site/Kremlin.ru)

WOTR | Oct. 11, 2022

As Russia Reels, Eurasia Roils

Jeffrey Mankoff

In trying and failing to reclaim Russian imperial influence over Ukraine, Moscow is actively accelerating the decline of its influence throughout Eurasia, including the former Soviet countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Perceiving the fragility of Russian power, governments across the region have begun creating facts on the ground in ways that Russia’s post-imperial power long prevented.

Strategic Studies Institute - Podcast | Sept. 19, 2022

Deconstructing the Collapse of Afghanistan National Security and Defense Forces

Thomas F. Lynch III, Todd Greentree, and Conrad Crane

The rapid collapse of Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in August 2021 was widely anticipated and due to its structural constraints and qualitative decline from 2018–21. This article provides a targeted analysis of ANDSF operational liabilities and qualitative limitations, referencing often overlooked statements by US and Afghan political and military officials, data from official US government reports, and prescient NGO field analyses. The painful ANDSF experience illuminates several principles that must be considered as US policymakers turn toward security force assistance for proxy and surrogate military forces in conflict with the partners of America’s emerging great-power geostrategic competitors—China and Russia.

A depiction of the monkeypox virus and how it forms in the human body before projecting outside.

National Defense | Oct. 21, 2022

Addressing the Threats of Emerging Biotechnologies

Diane DiEuliis and James Giordano

We have noted with interest the pivot in U.S. biodefense programs published in National Defense recently as the United States and other nations strive to keep pace with emerging biotechnology capabilities that complicate the threat landscape. We support such activities and propose some additional approaches toward threat mitigation that we believe are critical to national and global biosecurity and defense.