RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY

Through its publications, INSS provides rigorous, forward‑looking research and analysis on critical national security issues that support the joint warfighter and inform Department of War decision‑makers.

 

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Category: Disruptive Technology

July 7, 2025

Super Soldiers or Social Burden? Ethical Exploration of the Benefits and Costs of Military Bioenhancement

Biotechnological enhancements for military personnel arouse scrutiny, beyond the ethics of experimental research and due care during operational service, to the eventual return to a civilian life.

July 1, 2025

The Orb’s Eye: Seeing the National Security Implications of Iris Based "Proof of Humanity"

As recently reported in the cover story of Time magazine, the launch of The Orb — a beach‑ball‑sized biometric device developed by Tools for Humanity (co‑founded by Sam Altman) — marks a paradigmatic shift in digital identity and biosecurity technology and its implications.

June 24, 2025

Brain Scanning: Assessing Emigration of U.S. Scientific Talent to Surveille Strategic Implications for China’s Dual-Use Technological Capabilities

Intensifying global competition in science and technology (S/T), particularly in fields with considerable disruptive potential — such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, synthetic biology, and neurotechnology — has become a defining feature of 21st century geopolitical dynamics.

June 16, 2025

The “Ins” and “Outs” of Cognitive Warfare: What’s the Next Move?

INSS has relaunched Strategic Insights. Read the latest post by Elise Annett and Dr. James Giordano.

June 5, 2025

Dual use and gain-of-function research: a significant endeavor with biosecurity imperatives

Drs. Diane DiEuliis and James Giordano published a new paper entitled “Dual use and gain-of-function research: a significant endeavor with biosecurity imperatives,” in the international, peer-reviewed journal mSphere.

Feb. 19, 2025

Drones and Biotechnological Weaponry: Emerging Risks, Strategic Threats, and Viable Readiness

The United States National Drone Association (USNDA) recently announced its sponsorship of the inaugural, international U.S. Military Drone Crucible Drone Championship to provide a venue for exercising U.S. and allied military drone training, advanced piloting, operational utility, and counter-measures’ capability.

July 5, 2024

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.

Dec. 11, 2023

Imagining the Future of Landpower

Book review of The Arms of the Future: Technology and Close Combat in the Twenty-First Centry by Jacking Watling.

Dec. 4, 2023

AI’s Impact on War’s Enduring Nature

Despite the remarkable progress in generative AI, the authors contend that war’s essential nature will be impacted to a degree but will not be substantially altered.

Dec. 1, 2023

Assessing Russian Cyber and Information Warfare in Ukraine

This article examines Russian use of cyber and information capabilities to influence the course of the Ukraine war by analyzing prior expectations, public knowledge of wartime realities, potential reasons for disparity between the two, and the distinct and sometimes contradictory takeaways that have been drawn to date within the analytical community.