Through its publications, INSS aims to provide expert insights, cutting-edge research, and innovative solutions that contribute to shaping the national security discourse and preparing the next generation of leaders in the field.
Nov. 1, 2013
Deepening Japan’s Information Security Regime: The Need of Domestic Legislation
In August 2007, the United States and Japan concluded a General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) to facilitate the sharing of classified information. Based on some 60 precedents, the agreement has established common security standards to allow for sharing of intelligence as well as information on defense programs and operations. Given the well developed U.S. legal and administrative regime governing the protection of classified information, U.S.-Japan bilateral information sharing will be greatly facilitated by Japan’s adoption of a similar domestic regime.
Crisis Stability and Nuclear Exchange Risks on the Subcontinent: Major Trends and the Iran Factor
Crisis stability—the probability that political tensions and low-level conflict will not erupt into a major war between India and Pakistan—is less certain in 2013 than at any time since their sequential nuclear weapons tests of 1998. India’s vast and growing spending on large conventional military forces, at least in part as a means to dissuade Pakistan’s tolerance of (or support for) insurgent and terrorist activity against India, coupled with Pakistan’s post- 2006 accelerated pursuit of tactical nuclear weapons as a means to offset this Indian initiative, have greatly increased the risk of a future Indo-Pakistani military clash or terrorist incident escalating to nuclear exchange. America’s limited abilities to prevent the escalation of an Indo-Pakistani crisis toward major war are best served by continuing a significant military and political presence in Afghanistan and diplomatic and military-to-military dialogue with Pakistan well beyond 2014.
Sept. 1, 2013
DTP-104: External Collaboration in Army Science and Technology: The Army’s Research Alliances
In this study, the authors examine the decision for Army Research Laboratories to engage in external, formal collaborations such as collaborative alliances. They go on to assess ARL Collaborative Technology Alliances (CTAs), Collaborative Research Alliances (CRAs), and Information Technology Alliance (ITAs). The report concludes by examining the effectiveness of the examples given above, and a recommendation for formulating a set of assessment questions for Army managers considering collaboration in the future.
July 1, 2013
Sharing to Succeed: Lessons from Open Information-sharing Projects in Afghanistan
The sharing of information in complex civil-military operations is important, yet actors rarely do it well. U.S. and allied military forces must be able to communicate, collaborate, and exchange information effectively with the local populations they seek to influence, or they cannot achieve the goals for which they have been committed. Nonetheless, experience from stability operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, numerous humanitarian assistance/disaster relief missions, and efforts to build the capacity of foreign partners suggest that effective information-sharing is much harder than might be expected. This paper sheds light on the difficulties of setting up and sustaining projects to share information in such situations and suggests ways to do better in the future.
Valued Sustainable Services: Building Partnership Capacity Through Collaborating Approaches
The Valued Sustainable Services (ValSServ) concept is an approach to building the capacity of local populations. It emphasizes the interdependency among telecommunications, reliable power, and information-sharing support, and encourages projects to be developed in integrated packages rather than in stove-piped lines of effort. ValSServ focuses on bottom-up projects in complex civil-military operations that can be funded, planned, and executed at local levels, while being consistent with top-down national and theater strategies. It takes a system-of-systems approach, recognizing that successful projects can generate positive ripple effects in local environments and throughout extended networks. This paper focuses on ValSServ within the wide range of U.S. Department of Defense operating environments, such as capacity-building to help shape peacetime conditions in partner nations, post-disaster recovery, and helping to move from the “hold” to the “build” phases in counterinsurgency operations.
April 11, 2013
Indo-Chinese Relations & Border Issues in Northeast India: A View from India
Today in addition to the hot weather outside, it’s actually a hot agenda here at the National Defense University both in terms of activities as well as for those that work in the wider intellectual community thinking of issues that we are going to discuss today. I thank you all for being here in a timely fashion and make early apologies for those who will be arriving perhaps a little bit late --- principally from the other side of the river, the Defense Department and the wider Pentagon who will join in as we continue. But I’m delighted to have each of you here today and delighted to be sitting next to our guest speaker.
April 1, 2013
China’s Forbearance Has Limits: Chinese Threat and Retaliation Signaling and Its Implications for a Sino-American Military Confrontation
Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has employed military force in defense of China’s security and territorial integrity. In many such instances, Beijing implemented a calculus of threat and retaliation signals intended first to deter an adversary from taking actions contrary to Chinese interests by threatening the use of military force and, if deterrence failed, to explain and justify Beijing’s resort to military force.
Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization
Acceleration. Magnification. Diffusion. Entropy. Empowerment. The global environment and the international system are evolving at hypervelocity. A consensus is emerging among policymakers, scholars, and practitioners that recent sweeping developments in information technology, communication, transportation, demographics, and conflict are making global governance more challenging. Some argue these developments have transformed our international system, making it more vulnerable than ever to the predations of terrorists and criminals. Others argue that despite this significant evolution, organized crime, transnational terrorism, and nonstate networks have been endemic if unpleasant features of human society throughout history, that they represent nothing new, and that our traditional means of countering them—primarily conventional law enforcement—are adequate. Even among those who perceive substantial differences in the contemporary manifestations of these persistent maladies, they are viewed as major nuisances not adding up to a significant national or international security threat, much less an existential threat.
Feb. 1, 2013
The New NATO Policy Guidelines on Counterterrorism: Analysis, Assessments, and Actions
DOWNLOAD PDFExecutive Summary The history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will say