PUBLICATIONS

Through its publications 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.

 

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Illuminated brain map with network pathways. Visualization of interconnected neural pathways in brain. Electric neural network brain glowing with interconnected nodes and synapse pathways, visualization.

Sept. 3, 2026

Mind, Machine, Mission

Listen to Dr. James Giordano's interview on the Mind, Machine, Mission podcast, hosted by Military Times contributor Aliya Sternstein.

Blue computer brain circuit diagram concept illustrating AI. Glowing blue AI brain diagram as digital computer circuitry concept with wiring, neurons and connections, illustrating artificial intelligence and big data.

Sept. 3, 2026

A Framework for Adaptive Human-AI Teaming in Military Contexts

AI is enhancing military planning by expanding computational capacity, accelerating information synthesis, and strengthening decision support across complex operational environments. As multidomain operations, persistent sensing, and compressed decision timelines continue to shape the future battlespace, the effective integration of AI will depend upon structured approaches that align computational capability with commander intent, human judgment, and accountable command.

Cover of the AI and Ethics Handbook

Sept. 1, 2026

SYNTHComm: What AI Portends for Warfare…and Requires of Coordinated Command and Control

INSS experts Dr. Elise Annett and Dr. James Giordano authored a chapter in the newly released AI and Ethics Handbook titled "SYNTHComm: What AI Portends for Warfare…and Requires of Coordinated Command and Control." 

Microscope

Aug. 25, 2026

Preventing Biological Risk Requires More Than Restricting Gain-of-Function Research

Few areas of contemporary biomedical science so vividly illustrate the tension between knowledge as a source of public safety and security, and knowledge as a source of vulnerability as gain-of-function (GoF) research. Much of such work is routine and relatively benign, however, controversy arises when research involving infectious agents could increase properties such as pathogenicity, transmissibility, host range, immune evasion, environmental stability, or resistance to existing countermeasures.

An image of a brain with a target on top. By engaging the tools and techniques of the neurosciences, contemporary and near future approaches to cognitive warfare increasingly target key structures and functions of the human brain to affect thought, emotions and behaviors, essentially establishing the brain and mind as a viable and valuable battlespace.

Aug. 24, 2026

Cognitive Warfare and the Brain-as-Battlespace: Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, and the Emerging Domain of Neurostrategic Competition

Introduction: The Human Brain as BattlespaceEvery competitive or conflictive human activity wields

INSS Research Intern Alex Richter receiving the Larry D. Welch deterrence writing award from U.S. Strategic Command Commander Admiral Richard Corral at the STRATCOM Deterrence Symposium in Omaha, Nebraska on August 5, 2026

Aug. 21, 2026

INSS Research Intern Receives STRATCOM Award

INSS Research Intern Alex Richter received the Larry D. Welch deterrence writing award on August 5 from U.S. Strategic Command at the STRATCOM Deterrence Symposium in Omaha, Nebraska for his essay titled “Chinese and US Approaches to Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear Strategy.”

Dr. Tom Lynch (INSS) is pictured in front of the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia.

Aug. 19, 2026

INSS Research Engagements in Australia Advance Indo-Pacific Security Research

From 11-17 August 2026, INSS Distinguished Fellow Dr. Tom Lynch conducted research interviews and discussions in Australia (Canberra and Sydney) with government officials and think tank experts about Indo-Pacific security, the QUAD, and the U.S.-Australia strategic relationship.

A street sign depicting OODA Loop sits on display February 3, 2020, at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.

Aug. 18, 2026

Decision Advantage in Cognitive Warfare, Part 2

A central challenge of cognitive warfare is governing the relationship between institutional cognition and an operational environment in which informational, behavioral, and social dynamics evolve continuously and often independently of military decision timelines. To meet this challenge, we propose that future command architectures should emphasize and integrate mechanisms for the adaptive synchronization of human judgment, AI, and the cognitive ecosystem being engaged.

The autonomous system, Origin, prepares for a practice run during the Project Convergence capstone event at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, Aug. 11–Sept. 18, 2020. Project Convergence is the Army’s campaign of learning to aggressively advance solutions in the areas of people, weapons systems, command and control, information, and terrain; and integrate the Army’s contributions to Joint All Domain Operations.

Aug. 18, 2026

AI Versus AI: Human Engagement Via SYNTHComm in AI Warfare

In the AAIRR journal, INSS experts Dr. Elise G. Annett and Dr. James Giordano propose and define a dialectical command framework that represents a synthesis of human cognition and artificial intelligence (SYNTHComm), which is designed to realign the ethics of force projection in an era of increasingly autonomous systems.

Irregular Warfare Center logo

Aug. 18, 2026

The Agentic Olympus: The “Gods” of AI in Irregular Cognitive Warfare

INSS experts Dr. Elise G. Annett and Dr. James Giordano and Irregular Warfare Center researcher Dr. John A. Pennell recently published an article about “Agentic Olympus,” which establishes a strategic theory of AI-enabled command. It conceptualizes military AI as an evolving ecology of specialized intelligent agents whose relationships determine the quality, resilience, and adaptability of operational decision-making.