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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Aug. 1, 2025
The Variables of OPCON
The control rod logic, while not outwardly promoted by U.S. officials, had reemerged to shape the process around the status of wartime OPCON.
July 30, 2025
COMMENTARY: Insect-Sized Microdrones: A Tiny Vector for Big Biothreats
Recent demonstrations by China’s National University of Defense Technology, aired on state broadcast CCTV-7, revealed mosquito-sized robotic micro-unmanned aerial vehicles that are approximately two centimeters long and weigh 0.3 grams.
July 28, 2025
China’s military: How it went from obsolete to world-class
Dr. Phillip Saunders and Dr. Joel Wuthnow join Battle Lines, The Telegraph's Defence & Foreign Affairs Podcast.
INSS researchers join Battle Lines Podcast on the Chinese military
Dr. Phillip Saunders and Dr. Joel Wuthnow (CSCMA) joined Battle Lines for a three-part series focused on the Chinese military.
July 24, 2025
Russia Is Losing Its Near Abroad
Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine is one piece of a broader campaign to restore a sphere of influence in post-Soviet Eurasia.
July 16, 2025
INSS joins Power Vertical Podcast to talk rising tensions between Russia, Azerbaijan
In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Jeffrey Mankoff about rising tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan following a brutal crackdown and arrests on both sides.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Geopolitics in the South Caucasus
Jeffrey Mankoff, a Distinguished Research Fellow in the INSS Center for Strategy and Military Power (CSMP), joined The Russian Roulette podcast.
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.
Iran’s Strategic Crossroads: Options Beyond the Axis?
Events of 2023-2024, culminating with the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, have brought Iran’s regional strategy—a triad of ballistic missile capabilities, nuclear latency, and a decentralized network of regional armed partners—to a moment of reckoning.
July 6, 2025
A Better Way to Talk About Risk
Defense planners are prepared to accept risk to deter China, but what does that mean for counterterrorism?