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.
April 4, 2018
Emergence and Convergence: Risk Assessment Survey
Fort Lesley J McNair — In its multi-year study entitled Emergence and Convergence, the WMD Center is exploring the risks, opportunities, and governance challenges for countering WMD introduced by a diverse range of emerging technologies.
Biodata Risks and Synthetic Biology: A Critical Juncture
Intrinsic to growing ability to apply classical engineering to biological systems is the mounting ‘digitization of biology’, as the genetic code and its related metadata (including translated proteins, associated functions, herein referred to as “biodata”) are amassed in order to engineer biology for specific purposes. There are three unique risks categories associated with the digitization of biology: 1) pathogen risks; 2) manufacturing risks, and 3) risks to individual privacy that can allow human harms.
March 13, 2018
A Process to Analyze Data from the Deployable Metering and Monitoring System Using United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon Data, with Recommendations from a Limited Dataset
The United Nations Department of Peace Keeping Operations (UNPKO) leads and supports the efforts of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to maintain peace and provide humanitarian aid. With over 50 camps located in the country of Lebanon, the UNPKO is striving for energy efficiency to ensure day-to-day operations are using resources effectively. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) conducted a study1 rooted in the UNPKO mission to maintain energy efficient camps by analyzing data from metering systems to develop technology insertion recommendations.
March 1, 2018
Technology and National Security: The United States at a Critical Crossroads
American leadership in science, technology, and innovation (ST&I) has been the foundation of U.S. national security for decades. Advanced technology, along with America’s ability to operationalize it into transformational capabilities, has long given us a military advantage. This advantage has provided superiority on the battlefield and for our broader national security apparatus. Today, however, our technological superiority is increasingly being challenged by near-peer and asymmetric competitors. Globalization of science and technology, emerging and unpredictable threats (both manmade and natural), conventional and emerging weapons of mass destruction, and an inversion of technology flow from the private to public sectors all present challenges to our national security.
Feb. 1, 2018
Low-Cost Access to Space: Military Opportunities and Challenges
Space activity is critical to the American way of war. The commercialization of space has potentially radical implications for U.S. national security through its impact on a range of military and intelligence functions and on the ability of the nation to effectively project power around the globe.
Jan. 23, 2018
Negotiating a Nuclear "Code of Conduct"
The NPT five lack shared norms of nuclear behavior. Pursuing a nuclear code of conduct could resolve that and help increase both dialogue and stability.
Dec. 18, 2017
Can You Hear Me Now? The Case for Considering Information and Communications Technology as a Critical Component of Future Postconflict Operations
Information and communications technology (ICT) is vital to modern post-conflict security, stability, reconstruction, and development operations for both the intervening civil-military elements and the affected nation.
Nov. 17, 2017
Nuclear Terrorism - Imminent Threat?
Terrorism experts and analysts have debated this for years, and no consensus exists as to why the world has not seen terrorists succeed at perpetrating a nuclear attack. Despite the seeming inevitability of a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon, terrorists may be substantially less likely to conduct such an attack than most analysts and policymakers expect.
Nov. 3, 2017
Biosecurity Implications for the Synthesis of Horsepox, an Orthopoxvirus
This article examines the biosecurity and biodefense implications resulting from the recent creation of horsepox virus, a noncirculating (extinct) species of orthopoxvirus. Here we examine the technical aspects of the horsepox virus synthesis and conclude that orthopox synthesis experiments currently remain technically challenging—and will continue to be so, even once this work is published in the scientific literature.
Oct. 19, 2017
Competitive Symposium 2017
Washington, DC — The Competitive Symposium held on 2-3 March 2017 is a new initiative of the WMD Center designed to leverage the three components of the Center’s mandate together with our WMD expertise on staff and growing cadre of next-generation military and civilian leaders with knowledge of the WMD threat—the Program for Emerging Leaders (PEL) and the Countering WMD Graduate Fellows Program.