Through its publications, INSS aims to provide expert insights, cutting-edge research, and innovative solutions that contribute to shaping the national security discourse and preparing the next generation of leaders in the field.
Dec. 11, 2025
The Challenge of a Rising, Nuclear-Armed China
This National Institute for Public Policy article examines several specific developments in China’s nuclear arsenal, which, coupled with Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy, hold sobering implications for U.S. national security interests.
June 11, 2025
Re-examining National Missile Defense Strategy: Defending Against China
Dr. Kathleen Ellis, CSWMD Senior Policy Fellow, authored a National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) Occasional Paper, “Re-examining National Missile Defense Strategy: Defending Against China,”
May 1, 2025
Briefing on Nuclear Narrative Considerations for NATO to Nuclear Policy Group: Brussels
At the request of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Nuclear and Countering WMD Policy, Sarah Gamberini delivered a presentation on developing strategic communications plans for countering adversary information warfare campaigns focused on weapons of mass destruction to the Nuclear Policy Group’s High Level Group at NATO Headquarters in April 2025.
April 30, 2025
INSS Participates in Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) Balkans Regional Engagement in Slovenia
On 15 April, Mr. Paul J. David-Justus and Senior Policy Fellow Dr. Kathleen Ellis facilitated a tabletop exercise at the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) Balkans Regional Engagement in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Oct. 7, 2024
Thirty Years of the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction
NDU’s Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CSWMD), part of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, has been a trusted resource on WMD challenges to senior Defense and other interagency policy leaders for 30 years.
Sept. 23, 2024
China's Theater-Range, Dual-Capable Delivery Systems: Integrated Deterrence and Risk Reduction Approaches to Counter a Growing Threat
China has engaged in a dramatic buildup of its nuclear forces over the past decade. While much of the attention on China’s new nuclear arsenal has focused on its development and expansion of its strategic nuclear triad, this growth has also included significant numbers of theater-range, dual-capable delivery systems. These forces are not capable of reaching the U.S. mainland but can range U.S. and allied forces and bases across strategically significant swathes of the Indo-Pacific.
July 11, 2024
Information Resilience and Protecting the Norm Against Chemical Weapons: The Hague
On 20 July 2024, Senior Policy Fellow Sarah Gamberini organized a panel side session during the Executive Committee meeting in the Hague of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in an effort to bolster the norm against chemical weapons and provide countries layered solutions for countering manipulated narratives about CWC compliance.
Feb. 16, 2023
Private-Sector Research Could Pose a Pandemic Risk. Here’s What to do About It
In 2018, Canadian academics with pharmaceutical industry funding made a stunning announcement. They had synthesized horsepox, a pathogen that no longer exists in nature and that is closely related to the smallpox virus, variola. The controversial product was meant as a vaccine candidate—intended to infect humans and confer immunity without being
Oct. 20, 2021
Future Directions for Great Power Nuclear Arms Control: Policy Options and National Security Implications
With New START expiring in 2026, this Occasional Paper by 2020 National Defense University-U.S. Strategic Command Scholar Lt T. Justin Bronder, USAF, provides an assessment of several possible nuclear arms control/risk reduction approaches for the United States to consider. The author evaluates each approach for its possible impact on U.S.-Russia strategic stability, extended deterrence, budget costs, and other key factors, and recommends that in the near-term the United States engage other major nuclear powers in talks on new risk reduction and confidence-building measures.
June 24, 2021
Arms Control in Today's (Dis)Information Environment Part III
Information manipulation and covert influence campaigns have long been tools of sub-threshold strategic competition used to try to influence arms race dynamics, arms control decisions, and the enforceability of compliance and verification regimes. During the Cold War, such massive covert operations were only feasible by great powers. Today, not only are there more actors with potential stakes in arms control decisions, but global connectivity and digitization combined with a panoply of new Digital Age tools make it easier to obfuscate, deny, and manipulate the information environment around arms control.