Strategic Assessment 2025: Evolving Great Power Competition at Mid-Decade explores the ongoing dramatic evolution of strategic competition among and between today's three Great Powers — the United States, China, and Russia.
Every week, Strategic Insights brings analyses of critical policy issues that affect U.S. national security interests - from disruptive technologies to cognitive warfare, and more.
INSS provides cutting-edge research, analyses, and innovative solutions on critical national security issues in support of the joint warfighter and Department of War stakeholders.

Highlighted Articles

Republic of Korea Air Force F-15K Slam Eagles taxi to parking after arriving at Kunsan Air Base, ROK, Nov. 3, 2025, during Freedom Flag 25-2. FF 25-2 is a routine, regularly scheduled training event designed to prepare joint and combined forces for combat to defend the Republic of Korea.

Beyond the Peninsula: What OPCON Transfer Means for the Indo-Pacific

Clint Work

On the surface, wartime OPCON transition can appear a niche topic, marked by a change in the leadership of the South Korea-U.S. alliance’s combined military command structure.

Zhang Youxia (front) in 2023 swearing an oath as Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing

Xi’s military purges will make him wary of invading Taiwan

Dr. Phillip Saunders

On 25 January, China’s People’s Liberation Army announced that Central Military Commission Vice-Chair Zhang Youxia and Chief of the Joint Staff Department General Liu Zhenli were under investigation for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law.”

AI models struggle to form analogies when considering complex subjects, like humans can, meaning their use in real-world decision making could be risky. (Image credit: imaginima/Getty Images)

AI-powered military neurotech: Mind enhancement or control?

Aliya Sternstein

Neurable, a consumer neurotechnology startup, has partnered with the Air Force to study whether electrode-studded headphones can track service members’ cognitive fitness, much like Garmin smartwatches have monitored Space Force members’ physical fitness, company and government officials said this month.

The icebreaker USCGC Healy (WAGB 20) keeps station while conducting crane operations alongside a multi-year ice floe for a science evolution in the Beaufort Sea, Aug. 9, 2023. Healy is the Coast Guard’s only icebreaker specifically designed for Arctic research, as well as the nation’s sole surface presence routinely operating in the Arctic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Briana Carter)

The Arctic is a Strategic Distraction

T.X. Hammes

Over the past five years, numerous articles have called for increased U.S. defense resources focused on the Arctic. This is a strategic mistake, a distraction.

Featured Experts

Photo of James Giordano, Director of The Center of Disruptive Technology and Future Warfare.
James Giordano
Center Director, Biotechnology and AI

Areas of Expertise: Emerging Science and Technology; Neurocognitive Technology; Bioweapons, Biowarfare, and Biosecurity; Ethics


Distinguished Research Fellow, CSR / Director, CSCMA
Phillip C. Saunders
Center Director, China, Asia, Weapons of Mass Destruction

Areas of Expertise: China, Asia, Weapons of Mass Destruction

 


Distinguished Research Fellow, CSR
Thomas F. Lynch III
Distinguished Fellow, Strategic Competition, Indo-Pacific Security

Areas of Expertise: Asia and the Indo-Pacific (South and Central Asia); Great Power Competition (GPC); Middle East and North Africa (Gulf Arab States); Counter-terrorism


T.X. Hammes, Distinguished Research Fellow, CSR
T.X. Hammes
Distinguished Fellow, Future Conflict and Technology

Areas of Expertise: Future conflict; Changing Character of Warfare; Military Strategy; Insurgency/Irregular Warfare; Operational Concepts

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