Feb. 25, 2026

Strategic Assessment 2025: Evolving Great Power Competition at Mid-Decade

This mid-decade review of contemporary Great Power competition is most welcome because it presents U.S. political leadership and the national security community with an opportunity to reflect on the inherent challenges in this latest round of geopolitical rivalry. Although the turn toward contestation among the United States, China, and Russia (as well as others) was formally acknowledged by Washington first in its 2017 National Security Strategy, Great Power competition had never disappeared from the international system even during the halcyon days after the Cold War’s ending.

Dec. 16, 2025

The Imperial Trap: Russia’s War in Ukraine and the Lessons of Failed Conquests

Since the release of the U.S. 28-point draft peace plan in late November, many officials and observers have suggested that a ceasefire in Ukraine may be on the horizon.

Aug. 27, 2025

With the Armenia-Azerbaijan Deal, It’s a New Era in the Caucasus

A peace treaty would settle a long and bloody conflict—and create new geopolitical options in the region.

July 24, 2025

Russia Is Losing Its Near Abroad

Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine is one piece of a broader campaign to restore a sphere of influence in post-Soviet Eurasia.

July 16, 2025

INSS joins Power Vertical Podcast to talk rising tensions between Russia, Azerbaijan

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Jeffrey Mankoff about rising tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan following a brutal crackdown and arrests on both sides.

Feb. 3, 2025

INSS joins CSIS Discussion on New Strategy for Containing Russia

On Thursday, 30 January 2025, Jeffrey Mankoff, a Distinguished Research Fellow in the INSS Center for Strategic Research (CSR), participated in a CSIS discussion on a new strategy for containing Russia.

June 14, 2021

Russia and Saudi Arabia: Old Disenchantments, New Challenges

The Joseph Biden administration can manage its recalibration of relations with Saudi Arabia without unwarranted fear that Riyadh will view Russia as a safe-harbor alternative to the United States on a myriad of state-to-state interactions that are most important to the Kingdom. While Russia’s transactional approach to foreign partners has at times given it advantages in some areas over the more value-based framework of U.S. foreign relations, there clearly have been limits to the Russian style of dealing with Saudi Arabia in this century.

March 10, 2016

Making Russia Think Twice About Nuclear Threats

On September 11, 2013, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, writing in The New York Times, issued “A Plea for Caution From Russia.” Putin sought to communicate directly with the American people, warning against U.S. and Western unilateral military action in Syria — in response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own citizens —

March 9, 2016

Countering Russia’s Strategy for Regional Coercion and War

Much of the discussion since the 2014 Ukraine crisis began has focused on how Russia could exploit a local or regional political crisis (real or manufactured) to launch a military action that would result in a rapid fait accompli against one of the Baltic states (or elsewhere in eastern Europe), forcing NATO to weigh the costs and risks of a

Aug. 20, 2015

Putin's Russia and U.S. Defense Strategy

The workshop addressed two questions bearing on the development of U.S. and NATO strategy toward Russia.