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. 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.
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.
Feb. 9, 2026
Perceptions of Threat, Correlates of Dread, and Collective Instability
This essay argues that individual and collective perceptions of threat—and their neurocognitive correlate, dread—are key drivers of instability, volatility, and violence, and must be understood and engaged as strategic elements of modern cognitive warfare and deterrence.
Feb. 6, 2026
Neuroscience, Neuroculture, and Neuroethics
This book provides a broad overview of the cultural changes incurred by neuroscience and neurotechnology, and explores the evolving fields of neuroeconomics, neuropolitics, and neuroethics. It offers a multi-disciplinary view of how neuroscience and neurotechnology will affect society, and illustrates how these tools and methods are being used in research and ever-expanding practices in varying fields.
Feb. 5, 2026
Xi’s military purges will make him wary of invading Taiwan
On 25 January, China’s People’s Liberation Army announced that Central Military Commission Vice-Chair Zhang Youxia and Chief of the Joint Staff Department General Liu Zhenli were under investigation for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law.”
Feb. 4, 2026
America risks a nuclear-arms race with China
On 3 February, INSS China Center Director Dr. Phillip Saunders was quoted in The Economist in the story, “America risks a nuclear-arms race with China."
Quantum Technologies, Part Two: Recognizing Risks and Threats to National Security and Defense
Quantum science and technologies, while nascent, are being leveraged within and across a variety of military applications to fortify extant capabilities, and forge others anew, an example of which being the newly announced Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance (Q-BID) Critical Technology Area.
Jan. 27, 2026
Quantum Technologies: Focusing a Bit Upon Realities
Quantum technologies are often discussed in terms of being “revolutionary.” In the long term, this may likely be true, but at present, at least in military contexts, perhaps a more useful framing is to ask: in what domains and ways do quantum capabilities demonstrably outperform contemporary classical approaches; where are such technologies still insufficiently mature in readiness and operational feasibility; and what effects do such technologies exert on force design, intelligence tradecraft, and risks to national security?
Jan. 26, 2026
AI-powered military neurotech: Mind enhancement or control?
Neurable, a consumer neurotechnology startup, has partnered with the Air Force to study whether electrode-studded headphones can track service members’ cognitive fitness, much like Garmin smartwatches have monitored Space Force members’ physical fitness, company and government officials said this month.