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Established by the Secretary of Defense in 1984, INSS is comprised of three components: the Research Directorate, which analyzes global and regional security trends and frames national security policy and defense strategy options for senior decision-makers; the Center for Applied Strategic Learning, which develops and facilitates numerous strategic-level policy exercises and experiential learning activities for senior Executive Branch officials, the military combatant commands, Members of Congress, and various NDU educational programs; and the Conference Directorate, which annually organizes several major symposia and supports more than 100 other conferences, seminars, and round-tables organized by the research staff.
INSS aims to produce objective, timely, and rigorously grounded research on emerging strategic and regional security trends that pose longer-term challenges for U.S. national security and raise complex trade-offs for policy-makers and the American public. Accordingly, we attempt to ensure that we address the issues identified by senior leaders as of immediate importance to them as well as challenges for which U.S. leaders must be prepared in the future.
Research generally falls into two broad categories—strategic policy studies and regional security studies—but in some cases cuts across both categories.
Strategic Policy Studies explicate new defense concepts and methods for operating effectively in the evolving global security environment. Three teams conduct these studies:
- The Energy Studies team
- The Future Strategic Concepts Program team
Regional Security Studies are performed by four geographically-focused teams that examine patterns of stability and conflict in various regions as well as issues confronting the United States. While policy attention is focused at present on the Near East and South Asia region, INSS will devote its research energies not only to this region but also, consistent with the Chairman’s emphasis on balancing global strategic risk, to the challenges facing the United States in the Pacific and Far East, Europe and Eurasia, and the Western Hemisphere. The four teams are:
- Near East - South Asia
- East Asia - Pacific
- Europe - Eurasia
- Western Hemisphere
Center for Applied Strategic Learning (CASL)
The Center for Applied Strategic Learning (CASL) organizes a wide range of national security policy oriented activities for various audiences. In addition to its core mission to support the curricula of NDU colleges and components, the CASL conducts CJCS Level IV Antiterrorism Executive Seminars, Washington interagency education symposia, Joint Interagency Coordination Group education courses, senior policy exercises for OSD and ODNI, a series of games in support of the Presidential Management Fellows Program, and Strategic Policy Forum (SPF) exercises for Members of Congress and senior policymakers from Defense and other Executive departments and agencies.
Through the success of these exercises, the Strategic Policy Forum broadened its strategic–level gaming to state and international levels including a program for the Governor of Hawaii and a two-day pandemic influenza symposium for parliamentary officials from Mexico and several former members of the United States Congress and senior level executive branch officials from both nations. The center also provided strategic-level experiential education in national policymaking to select college and high school students, members of the media, and current business leaders.
The Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs is established in accordance with Section 914 of Public Law 106-65, the National Defense Authorization Act for 2000. The Center is an integral component of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the National Defense University (NDU) operating in accordance with the INSS Charter from the Secretary of Defense and the Memorandum of Understanding with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Center is under the direct supervision of its Director, who is appointed by the President of NDU and reports to the Director of INSS. (INSS Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Philip Saunders, serves as the CSCMA program coordinator.) >
The mission of the Center is to serve as a national focal point and resource center for multidisciplinary research and analytic exchanges on the national goals and strategic posture of the People's Republic of China and the ability of that nation to develop, field, and deploy an effective military instrument in support of its national strategic objectives. The Center keeps officials in the Department of Defense, other government agencies, and the Congress apprised of the results of these efforts. The Center also engages the faculty and students of the National Defense University and other components of the Department of Defense Professional Military Education (PME) system in aspects of its work and thereby assists their respective programs of teaching, training, and research. The Center also has an active outreach program designed to promote exchanges among American and international analysts of Chinese military affairs.
The military and civilian analysts and staff who comprise the Center execute their mission through a program of internal and contract research and publications, as well as routine exchanges with governmental and non-governmental experts. These activities are supported by internet links to the wider analytic community, seminars, conferences, and gaming and simulation.
The Center' s resident research staff draws on a number of disciplines and the wider analytic community in the pursuit of its research mission. Starting with concepts of national interest, national strategy (as manifested in foreign and national security policies), and strategic culture, the Center supports analysis of:
- the views of Chinese leaders on the use of military force, including its utility as a means of achieving national objectives and conditions under which they might actually resort to force;
- the ways in which China's perceived military/strategic needs are translated into force structure;
- China's ability to create and sustain various force structures; and,
- the overall capabilities of its evolving military forces.
These general objectives are realized through a program of research and exchanges centered on assessing:
- China's national interests, objectives, and strategic culture
- Evolving concepts of grand strategy, military strategy, military operations, and tactics
- Evolving doctrinal concepts at each of the four levels
- How doctrine at each level influences force structure choices
- How doctrine and force structure interact at each level through procurement, officer education, and training to produce an integrated system of military capabilities.
The core program is further informed by supporting research and exchanges on: the impact of relevant economic trends; strengths and weaknesses in the scientific and technological sector; and, demographic, human resource, and other factors that might affect progress in the military sphere.
In the past year, INSS conducted major outreach symposia: Strategic Re-Assessment: From Long-Range Planning to Future Strategy and Forces at the request of and in cooperation with OSD Policy Planning and U.S. Joint Forces Command to assist them in identifying and assessing best practices for developing long-range future assessments and joint strategic plans and NATO: Bucharest and Beyond, addressing key issues facing NATO in advance of the April 2008 NATO Summit. The Institute also hosted a half-day seminar on the book U.S. Special Operations Forces, co-authored by an INSS Senior Research Fellow. The Institute co-sponsored the 11th Annual Western Hemisphere Security, Colloquium, Transformation for Cooperation with the USAWC Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Southern Command, U.S. Northern Command, and Florida International University and hosted and co-sponsored an international forum with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Atlantic Council, an annual Washington meeting with approximately 100 European parliamentarians and U.S. Members of Congress. Events featured diverse, well-prepared, and insightful panelists speaking on topics of high policy interest and attracted many U.S. and international attendees. Institute faculty also worked closely with the Department of State Political-Military Bureau to ensure the success of the tenth annual Political Advisor Conference. INSS co-sponsoring and hosting for this event consistently draws accolades from the State Department for exceptional interagency support.
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