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The Institute for National Strategic Studies serves as a focal point for analysis of critical national security policy and defense strategy issues.

 

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July 20, 2020

Al-Qaeda’s Iran Dilemma: Evidence from the Abbottabad Records

Through a comprehensive review of documents recovered from Usama bin Ladin’s Abbottabad compound, this study provides a new periodization of al-Qaeda’s relationship with Iran. The analysis reveals that al-Qaeda often had to reconcile conflicting operational and ideational pressures in its interactions with the Islamic Republic over time. Beyond offering insight into the trajectory of this important relationship and direction for future scholarship, the analysis suggests some ways through which the United States might expand the strategic wedge that exists between these unlikely allies and highlights the need for a more flexible understanding of state sponsored terrorism.

July 14, 2020

Terrorism in Afghanistan: A Joint Threat Assessment (Chapter III)

Chapter III: Afghanistan in the Regional Security Interplay ContextAs it has for centuries,

July 13, 2020

Western Way of War

RUSI Western Way of War audio discussion featuring Dr. Frank Hoffman.

June 24, 2020

How Will the EU Survive the Coronavirus?

What will be the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on Europe?  How will the pandemic change the

June 23, 2020

An Affordable Defense of Asia

US military advantages over China are steadily eroding…For the last two decades, China has studied

June 10, 2020

China’s Inopportune Pandemic Assertiveness

For a state just beginning to recover from Covid-19, China has been remarkably active in pressing

May 11, 2020

Still First to Fight? Shaping the 21st Century Marine Corps

The headline in the New York Times on June 1, 1918, read “Marines – First to Fight.” The day before,

May 7, 2020

Governing a Pandemic

In their article in Inkstick, Ms. Sarah Jacobs Gamberini and Ms. Amanda Moodie examine China's authoritarian approach to COVID-19 in the context of great power competition.

April 20, 2020

An American Perspective on Post-Pandemic Geopolitics

Viewed from the other side of the Atlantic, the coronavirus crisis will have significant

April 15, 2020

Building a Marine Corps for Every Contingency, Clime, and Place

Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger’s recently published Force Design 2030 has riled up both the


INSS Around the Web | Feb. 24, 2026

Laser-focusing Defense Capabilities

Contemporary warfighting is undergoing rapid and profound transformation. As noted in prior analyses of disruptive technologies and future warfare, the convergence of precision guidance, hypersonic kinematics, distributed sensors, and iteratively

INSS Around the Web | Feb. 23, 2026

How AI Can Help Enforce the Biological Weapons Convention

President Donald Trump’s recent proposal to the United Nations General Assembly regarding the use of artificial intelligence systems to support oversight and enforcement of the Biological Weapons Convention represents a significant milestone in


INSS Around the Web | Feb. 17, 2026

The Recent Rash of Biotechnology Risks: A Call to Fortify Force Capability

The tools of modern biology such as state-of-the-art gene editing, modular DNA assembly, cell-free systems, benchtop automation, and AI-enabled formulation have distributed bioweapon capability beyond the skillcraft of traditional state laboratories.


INSS Around the Web | Feb. 10, 2026

Decision-Based Artificial Intelligence and the Strategic Reordering of M...

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.

INSS Around the Web | 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



INSS Around the Web | 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