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.
July 9, 2024
The Future of Hybrid Warfare
The NATO Futures Series by CSIS features scholars from the Futures Lab, the International Security Program, and across CSIS. It explores emerging challenges and opportunities that NATO is likely to confront after its 75th anniversary.
July 5, 2024
The Elusive Promise of “Over-the-Horizon” Counterterrorism
Dr. Kim Cragin, INSS Distinguished Fellow for Counterterrorism, has a new journal article on the opportunities and challenges posed by an over-the-horizon approach to counterterrorism.
Small, smart, many and cheaper: Competitive adaptation in modern warfare
Q&A with T. X. Hammes, a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense program of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a distinguished research fellow in the Center for Strategic Research.
Lethal Targeting and Adaptation Failure in Terrorist Groups
This study argues that terrorist groups’ command relationships and resources bases can hinder their ability to adapt to lethal targeting. It evaluates this argument by examining Arabic language correspondence from Usama bin Ladin’s compound related to the drone campaign in Pakistan.
May 9, 2024
Unpacking China’s PLA Restructuring: A Conversation with Dr. Joel Wuthnow
Dr. Joel Wuthnow (INSS/Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs) was interviewed on the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS) ChinaPower podcast.
May 1, 2024
The Middle East and the Ukraine War: Between Fear and Opportunity
April 30, 2024 — While the ambivalence among Middle Eastern states about the war in Ukraine stems from multiple sources, Russian influence is a significant, if underappreciated, factor. Several of these countries see Moscow as an external balancer and hedge against the possibility of a broader US pullback from the region. At the same time, Russia maintains significant coercive capabilities thanks to its military presence in Syria and burgeoning strategic partnership with Iran. Many aspiring regional powers are also sympathetic to Moscow's calls for an international order less centered on the West. This article analyzes these concerns and perceptions, and it shows how they have shaped the way states in the region have responded to the invasion of Ukraine. Broadly speaking, these states see it as a peripheral concern—especially following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023—though one that could destabilize the region by stoking inflation or further emboldening Iran. While they are wary of confronting Moscow or facing regional instability, many also directly benefit from Russia's economic decoupling from the West. These countries share President Vladimir Putin's assessment that the war in Ukraine is inaugurating a new age more friendly to middle powers.
April 7, 2024
Rising to the Challenge: Taiwan's Response to a New Era China
A new INSS Working Paper analyzes Taiwan’s policy toward Mainland China during the Tsai Ing-wen administration and assesses prospects for cross-Strait relations under Taiwan president-elect Lai Ching-te.
April 1, 2024
Xi’s Cross-Strait Policy in the “New Era”
Since the transition from Chinese leader Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping in November 2012, the key principle underlying Beijing’s policy toward Taiwan—that the island is not independent and is an immutable part of China which must ultimately be “reunified” with the mainland—has remained consistent. However, in the last eight years since the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen of the Taiwan-centric Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in May 2016, Beijing’s rhetoric, policies, and actions toward the island have changed and ramped up considerably. Following the election in January 2024 of Tsai’s vice president, Lai Ching-te (William Lai) who is also with the DPP, Xi’s New Era will likely make the Taiwan Strait an increasingly tense and dangerous environment, with potentially significant consequences for U.S. policy and strategy both there and throughout the Indo-Pacific.
March 7, 2024
The Russo-Chinese Alliance and Great Power Competition with Dr. Tom Lynch
March 7, 2024 — Dr. Tom Lynch offers us a Great Power Competition understanding of the evolving Russo-Chinese strategic partnership on the Georgetown University “Diplomatic Immunity” podcast. His 30-minute podcast conversation, posted on March 7, 2024, tells us why China and Russia now appear more strategically aligned than they actually are and why they are not destined to be formal allies into the future.
March 6, 2024
America’s New Twilight Struggle With Russia
March 6, 2024 — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Washington to rethink its fundamental assumptions about Moscow. Every U.S. president from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden had sought some degree of engagement with Russia. As late as 2021, Biden expressed hope that Russia and the United States could arrive at “a stable, predictable relationship.” But Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine has radically altered that assessment. It is now clear that the two countries will remain antagonists for years to come. The Kremlin possesses immense disruptive global power and is willing to take great risks to advance its geopolitical agenda. Coping with Russia will demand a long-term strategy, one that echoes containment, which guided the United States through the Cold War, or what President John F. Kennedy called a “long, twilight struggle” against the Soviet Union.