The Institute for National Strategic Studies serves as a focal point for analysis of critical national security policy and defense strategy issues.
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July 8, 2025
Strategic Innovation in the DoD FY 2026 RDTE Budget: Leveraging Disruptive Technologies for Deterrence, Defense, and Command and Control
The Department of Defense FY 2026 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDTE) budget request marks a strategic inflection that reflects a doctrinal shift toward convergent disruptive technologies, and with it, a re-posturing of how deterrence, defense and decisive command will be engaged on the near-future battlefield.
July 7, 2025
Super Soldiers or Social Burden? Ethical Exploration of the Benefits and Costs of Military Bioenhancement
Biotechnological enhancements for military personnel arouse scrutiny, beyond the ethics of experimental research and due care during operational service, to the eventual return to a civilian life.
Iran’s Strategic Crossroads: Options Beyond the Axis?
Events of 2023-2024, culminating with the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, have brought Iran’s regional strategy—a triad of ballistic missile capabilities, nuclear latency, and a decentralized network of regional armed partners—to a moment of reckoning. Will Tehran double down on support for the “Axis of Resistance,” or pivot toward regional diplomacy and economic normalization? The answer will define a new phase in Middle East geopolitics.
July 6, 2025
A Better Way to Talk About Risk
Defense planners are prepared to accept risk to deter China, but what does that mean for counterterrorism?
July 5, 2025
China’s Military Diplomacy in the New Era
Military diplomacy – including senior-level visits, port calls, and joint exercises – has become a vital tool of Chinese statecraft.
July 1, 2025
The Orb’s Eye: Seeing the National Security Implications of Iris Based ‘Proof of Humanity’
As recently reported in the cover story of Time[JG1] magazine, the launch of The Orb—a beach‑ball‑sized biometric device developed by Tools for Humanity (co‑founded by Sam Altman)—marks a paradigmatic shift in digital identity and biosecurity technology and its implications.
June 24, 2025
Brain Scanning: Assessing Emigration of U.S. Scientific Talent to Surveille Strategic Implications for China’s Dual-Use Technological Capabilities
Intensifying global competition in science and technology (S/T), particularly in fields with considerable disruptive potential - such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, synthetic biology, and neurotechnology—has become a defining feature of 21st-century geopolitical dynamics.
June 16, 2025
The “Ins” and “Outs” of Cognitive Warfare: What’s the Next Move?
INSS has relaunched Strategic Insights. Read the latest post by Elise Annett and Dr. James Giordano.
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,”
June 10, 2025
Dr. Clint Work featured on Korea 24 Radio Show
On 10 June, Dr. Clint Work provided commentary on potential changes in the U.S. force posture on the Korean Peninsula for Korea 24.