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.
April 16, 2026
Breaking (Bad) Biotech — Revisiting the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
Dr. Giordano explores how advances in biotechnology, like gene editing and AI, allow adversaries to easily create novel, weaponizable biological agents that are difficult to detect and defend against. In an evolving operational environment, the nature of biological warfare has shifted.
Aug. 7, 2017
A Short History of Biological Warfare: From Pre-History to the 21st Century
This short monograph reviews the history of biological warfare (BW) from prehistory to the present. It covers what we know about the practice of BW and briefly describes the programs that developed BW weapons based on the best available research.
July 18, 2016
The Soviet Biological Weapons Program and Its Legacy in Today’s Russia
In its first Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Case Study, the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CSWMD) at the National Defense University examined President Richard M. Nixon’s decision, on November 25, 1969, to terminate the U.S. offensive biological weapons program. This occasional paper seeks to explain why the Soviet government, at approximately the same time, decided to do essentially the opposite, namely, to establish a large biological warfare (BW) program that would be driven by newly discovered and powerful biotechnologies. By introducing the innovation of recombinant DNA technology—commonly referred to as genetic engineering—the Soviets were attempting to create bacterial and viral strains that were more useful for military purposes than were strains found in nature.
July 1, 2015
The History of Biological Weapons Use: What We Know and What We Don’t
This article critically reviews the literature on the history of biological warfare, bioterrorism, and biocrimes.