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.
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.
Assessing Xi’s Unprecedented Purges of China’s Military: Key Developments and Potential Implications
On January 24, 2026, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced that the military’s top general, Zhang Youxia, and the chief of the Joint Staff Department, Liu Zhenli, had been placed under investigation for serious disciplinary and legal violations.
The Danger in the Middle: Will Xi’s Purges Increase the Risk of War?
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has purged dozens of senior People’s Liberation Army officers since mid-2023, including two in January, but will this increase the risk of war?
Feb. 24, 2026
Laser-focusing Defense Capabilities
Contemporary warfighting is undergoing rapid and profound transformation. As noted in prior analyses of disruptive technologies and future warfare, the convergence of precision guidance, hypersonic kinematics, distributed sensors, and iteratively autonomous machine systems has altered the character of conflict in both the tempo and geometry of engagement(s).
Feb. 23, 2026
How AI Can Help Enforce the Biological Weapons Convention
President Donald Trump’s recent proposal to the United Nations General Assembly regarding the use of artificial intelligence systems to support oversight and enforcement of the Biological Weapons Convention represents a significant milestone in focusing emergent technological approaches to international biosecurity.
Feb. 19, 2026
To Prevent a Great Power War: Conflict Prevention Efforts and Possibilities by the U.S. and China
War between rivalrous great powers (GPW) often is not a deliberate choice.
Feb. 17, 2026
The Recent Rash of Biotechnology Risks: A Call to Fortify Force Capability
The tools of modern biology such as state-of-the-art gene editing, modular DNA assembly, cell-free systems, benchtop automation, and AI-enabled formulation have distributed bioweapon capability beyond the skillcraft of traditional state laboratories. Although specialized methods and equipment are required for bioagent manufacture, the relative ease of acquiring and using these means is such that more actors can gain access to such agents and can do so without the need for bespoke facilities.
Feb. 12, 2026
Understanding Space Frontier Areas
Distant reaches of space loom as a strategic horizon. The vast majority of space operations have, so far, been limited to a few families of near-Earth orbits. However, space beyond geostationary Earth orbit, or xGEO, is likely to become important for strategic purposes in the near future. This is especially true of cislunar space, that region of space in which the gravity of Earth’s moon is significant. This paper refers to xGEO and cislunar space as Space Frontier Areas, since missions there have not yet reached sufficient scale to cluster into patterns of use.
Feb. 11, 2026
Beyond the Peninsula: What OPCON Transfer Means for the Indo-Pacific
On the surface, wartime OPCON transition can appear a niche topic, marked by a change in the leadership of the South Korea-U.S. alliance’s combined military command structure.
Feb. 10, 2026
Decision-Based Artificial Intelligence and the Strategic Reordering of Military Power
The public acknowledgement of the increasing use of decision-based artificial intelligence (AI) in U.S. defense provides a backdrop to a structural reordering of how military missions will be generated, exercised, and contested.