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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Tag: strategic competition

Digital illustration of a human profile with a glowing brain facing an AI-generated profile connected by network-like data streams and neural patterns.

June 9, 2026

Autonomous Narrative Warfare: Engaging Agentic AI Within the Cognitive Battlespace

Cognition is becoming a focal domain of strategic competition of the twenty-first century battlespace.

Illustration of a human head silhouette containing a glowing brain with digital circuitry, data streams, and floating numbers, representing cognitive warfare, neurotechnology, and information operations.

June 8, 2026

Cognitive Warfare at the Crossroads: Defining and Developing Capabilities

To date, there continues to be some discussion, including essays that have appeared in this forum, as to whether and to what extent cognitive warfare represents anything other than psychological operations (PSYOPS) with more sophisticated tools and methods, or if it actually is a unique and evolving domain of combat.

Workers oversee artillery shell production inside a munitions manufacturing facility. Rows of large shell casings move through an industrial assembly line surrounded by heavy machinery, conveyor systems, and production equipment.

May 11, 2026

The Pentagon Needs a Playbook for Munitions Surge Production

Using uneven U.S. munitions ramp ups after Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion as evidence, the article argues that munitions surge capacity is determined before a crisis begins.

Illuminated brain map with network pathways. Visualization of interconnected neural pathways in brain.

April 9, 2026

Cognitive Warfare and the Changing Character of Engagement: A Neurostrategic Perspective

The contemporary battlespace is undergoing a profound transformation in its fundamental logic.

President of the United States Donald Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping at the Gimhae International Airport terminal, Thursday, October 30, 2025, in Busan, South Korea. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Feb. 25, 2026

The Danger in the Middle: Will Xi’s Purges Increase the Risk of War?

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has purged dozens of senior People’s Liberation Army officers since mid-2023, including two in January, but will this increase the risk of war?

Cover of the academic journal Journal of Chinese Political Science, Volume 18, Number 3 (September 2013). The cover features a deep red background with the journal title in white at the top and a vertical black sidebar on the left displaying Chinese characters. The Springer logo appears at the bottom along with the note “for Association of Chinese Political Studies.” ISSN 1080-6954 is listed beneath the volume information.

Feb. 19, 2026

To Prevent a Great Power War: Conflict Prevention Efforts and Possibilities by the U.S. and China

War between rivalrous great powers (GPW) often is not a deliberate choice.

Soldiers loading sea mines during a military exercise in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Sept. 15, 2025

The Greatest Danger in the Taiwan Strait

Dr. Joel Wuthnow writes a piece for Foreign Affairs on how a war between China and Taiwan could result from an accident or miscalculation that spirals out of control.

Cover page of the publication titled "China's Military Diplomacy" by Phillip C. Saunders and Melodie Ha, part of China Strategic Perspectives 19. The cover features a photograph of a formal meeting between Chinese military officials and foreign military representatives seated around a long conference table, with Chinese flags and a traditional landscape painting in the background. The bottom of the cover credits the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs, part of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at National Defense University.

June 23, 2025

China's Military Diplomacy

Chinese military diplomacy serves both strategic and operational goals.

Extraordinary meeting of NATO Ministers of Defense with representatives of Finland, Georgia, Sweden, Ukraine, and the European Union

July 11, 2023

Priorities for NATO Partnerships in an Era of Strategic Competition

Since 2014, NATO has paid relatively little strategic attention to partnerships with nonmember states around the world. This study evaluates how select NATO partner states in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region see the strategic value of cooperating with NATO as the Alliance adapts for strategic competition, and it assesses the prospects for future cooperation.

How to Engage with China

Jan. 31, 2023

China's Indo-Pacific Folly

Beijing’s ambition to isolate Washington from its Asian allies has been derailed in large part by its desire to redress more immediate grievances—namely, to reclaim what it sees as lost territory and punish countries that offend its sensibilities.