Publications

Commentary

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

 

Filter by

Topic

Region

ArticleCS - Dashboard

All Entries

ArticleCS - Article List

Results:
Category: INSS Around the Web

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Commanding General for the unified U.N. forces Aiding the Republic of Korea to repel the North Korean Communists, and a staff officer (right) inspecting a Communist tank, destroyed during the recent U.N. landings at Incho.

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.

Image of a micro-UAV shown on China Central Television

July 30, 2025

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.

Cover of podcast series by The Telegraph, "China’s military: How it went from obsolete to world-class."

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.

Cover of podcast series by The Telegraph, "China’s military: How it went from obsolete to world-class."

July 28, 2025

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.

Russian service members in uniform stand in a line while attending a base-closing ceremony in Khojaly, Azerbaijan.

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.

A black-and-white map of Europe and parts of Russia is overlaid with chess pieces. A prominent gold king stands in the area near Moscow, surrounded by toppled silver pawns, suggesting a geopolitical metaphor for dominance or conflict in the region.

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.

Podcast cover art for "Russian Roulette" by CSIS. The design features a black-and-white photo of a historic Russian building overlaid on a red map of Moscow. Three diagonal black lines intersect the top right corner. The podcast title is in bold black letters at the bottom, and "CSIS" appears in the upper left corner.

July 16, 2025

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.

Cover of the AJOB Neuroscience journal, Volume 16, 2025, Number 3 (July–September). The background features an artistic rendering of neurons and synapses in a grayscale palette with highlighted red and orange synaptic connections. The journal title is displayed prominently in gold text on a dark banner across the top.

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.

The White House is pictured behind a large-scale fence at night.

July 7, 2025

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.

President Donald Trump sits with senior national security officials in the White House Situation Room during the U.S. operation targeting Iran's nuclear program on June 22, 2025.

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?

INSS Around the Web | 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
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
INSS Around the Web | Jan. 22, 2026

The Arctic is a Strategic Distraction

Over the past five years, numerous articles have called for increased U.S. defense resources focused on the Arctic. This is a strategic mistake, a distraction.
INSS Around the Web | Jan. 20, 2026

INSS Contributes Chapter on "PLA High Command in a Protracted War" in Ar...

INSS China Center Senior Research Fellow Dr. Joel Wuthnow published a chapter on “PLA High Command in a Protracted War: Four Scenarios” in a new Army War College book edited by Joshua Arostegui, The 2024 Carlisle Conference on the PLA: Protracted War
INSS Around the Web | Jan. 8, 2026

Re-constructing and Construing the Warfighter: The Intersection of Bioen...

Current joint warfighters are no longer merely trained — in many ways, they are increasingly bioengineered.
INSS Around the Web | Dec. 17, 2025

Biotechnology in the FY 2026 NDAA: Strategic Implications — and Recommen...

The newly released FY 26 NDAA places explicit emphasis upon the increasing involvement of biotechnology in US military missions. As 2025 comes to a close, and we look ahead to the new year, Dr. James Giordano, Director of the CDTFW, offers a view to
INSS Around the Web | Dec. 16, 2025

The Imperial Trap: Russia’s War in Ukraine and the Lessons of Failed Con...

Since the release of the U.S. 28-point draft peace plan in late November, many officials and observers have suggested that a ceasefire in Ukraine may be on the horizon.
INSS Around the Web | Dec. 16, 2025

Dr. Tom Lynch Contributes U.S. Chapter to The Palgrave Geopolitical Atlas

"Chapter 2: United States" in The Palgrave Geopolitical Atlas: State and Quasi-State Actors in Great Power Competition is part of a comprehensive 54-chapter edited book that examines global state and quasi-state interactions in the new era of Great
INSS Around the Web | Dec. 11, 2025

The Challenge of a Rising, Nuclear-Armed China

This National Institute for Public Policy article examines several specific developments in China’s nuclear arsenal, which, coupled with Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy, hold sobering implications for U.S. national security interests.
INSS Around the Web | Dec. 3, 2025

Strategic Ambiguity: Erdoğan’s Turkey in a Multipolar World

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Finland and Sweden made the historic decision to seek membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).