Institute for Strategic Risk and Security

The 2026 ISRS × UNT NEXUS research internship is officially underway, led by UNT NEXUS Director, Dr. Helen Potts, and ISRS Chairman, Dr. Dave Venable.

This inaugural cohort brings together 15 University of North Texas student researchers from eight disciplines to help build the Strategic Pattern Register (SPR), a joint ISRS–NEXUS research initiative focused on identifying, documenting, and tracking recurring strategic behaviors across cyber and other domains.

The first research phase examines Strategic Spillover, Attention Saturation, and Distributed Coercion, with the goal of building a structured body of evidence that can support future academic research, analytical reporting, Flashpoint Briefings, and continued development of the SPR.

Observe widely → connect signals → identify recurrence → register the pattern.

Learn more:
isrs.ngo/spr
class.unt.edu/sociology/nexus/current-research.html

One idea we’ve been developing at the Institute for Strategic Risk and Security: today’s strategic competition isn’t just about military power or economic leverage. It’s increasingly about concurrency, the ability to create so many simultaneous pressures across different domains that governments, institutions, and societies struggle to keep up.

Our new piece, published by the George W. Bush Institute, examines how revisionist states use concurrency as a deliberate strategy to build cumulative advantage across domains.

We’re glad to see these ideas evolve and reach new audiences through collaborations like this one.

If you’re curious about how competition is changing today, and why many current crises are better understood as connected rather than separate, this piece is worth your time.

https://www.bushcenter.org/publications/how-revisionist-states-turn-concurrency-into-strategic-advantage

How Revisionist States Turn Concurrency Into Strategic Advantage | George W. Bush Presidential Center Read the article Malign Alignment: How China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (CRINK) threaten the U.S. and our allies .. Resource Jun 9, 2026 Malign Alignment: How China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (CRINK) threaten the U.S. and our allies

The 2026 G7 Summit in Évian made clear a central reality of the current security environment: regional crises can no longer be treated as isolated events.

In a new ISRS Field Dispatch from G7 Évian 2026, Dr. Mykola Volkivskyi assesses what the summit means for Ukraine and the future of global security.

For Ukraine, the message from Évian was clear: support remains firm, long-term, and increasingly focused on acceleration. The G7 reaffirmed Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and right to self-defense. Leaders also emphasized air defense, long-range capabilities, expanded military support, and potential licensing arrangements to strengthen Ukraine's domestic defense production.

But the significance of the summit extends beyond Ukraine.

Évian reflected a broader shift in how leading democratic powers are approaching international security. Energy resilience, sanctions pressure, maritime security, Indo-Pacific stability, North Korean cyber activity, and renewed diplomacy in the Middle East are no longer separate policy tracks. They are increasingly part of a single strategic equation.

The central conclusion: the security challenges of the twenty-first century require coordinated, multidimensional responses.

Read the latest ISRS Field Dispatch: https://www.isrs.ngo/fpb/field-dispatch-from-g7-what-the-summit-means-for-ukraine

New ISRS dispatch from Évian: Board Member Dr. Mykola Volkivskyi reports on the first three G7 declarations: development finance, Ebola response, cancer research, and the common thread running through them.

The boundaries between economic, health, and security policy are blurring. Resilience is becoming the organizing principle.

Full dispatch at the link in the comments

Economic security. Technological competition. Energy resilience. Support for Ukraine.

At the 2026 G7 Summit in Évian, leaders are confronting a growing reality: the boundaries between economics, security, and technology are disappearing. Strategic competition now spans supply chains, artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure, energy markets, and the future of the international order itself.

In a new ISRS analysis, Dr. Mykola Volkivskyi and Dr. Nicola Rivieccio examine the key themes emerging from the summit and their implications for Europe, Ukraine, and the broader transatlantic community.

The central lesson from Évian is clear: economic policy affects security, technology affects sovereignty, and resilience has become a defining requirement of strategic power.

Read the full analysis at the link in the coments

The G7 Summit opening today faces a strategic environment that has shifted in kind, not just degree.

Ukraine, economic coercion, supply chain disruptions, cyber operations, disinformation, emerging technologies. These are discussed as separate problems. Adversaries increasingly exploit them as a single system.

The real challenge for democratic institutions is managing convergence, not containing each threat in isolation.

ISRS is on the ground in Évian and will be reporting on what the summit reveals about resilience, strategic adaptation, and the future security environment.

The 52nd G7 Summit is underway in Évian-les-Bains, France, bringing together leaders from the world's leading democracies at a moment of growing geopolitical uncertainty, economic fragmentation, technological disruption, and regional conflict.

From support for Ukraine and stability in the Middle East to AI governance, cybersecurity, critical minerals, and global economic resilience, the summit agenda reflects the increasingly interconnected nature of today's strategic challenges.

ISRS Board Member Dr. Mykola Volkivskyi is on the ground in Évian and provides an opening Field Dispatch examining the summit's priorities, participants, and strategic significance.

As the international system continues to evolve, the effectiveness of institutions like the G7 will increasingly be measured not by declarations alone, but by their ability to translate consensus into coordinated action.

Field Dispatch from Évian
Read the full dispatch: https://www.isrs.ngo/fpb/field-dispatch-g7-summit

Next week, ISRS will be in Évian, France at the G7 Summit.

As leaders gather to address security, economic resilience, energy, technology, and global stability, our team will be engaging with experts and partners from across government, industry, and civil society.

Follow along as we publish observations and analysis throughout the week.

Great piece from New Eastern Europe:

In a world where war can disrupt the flow of compute as easily as oil, Armenia actually offers a solution Talk about “chip diplomacy” continues to focus on potential flashpoints such as Taiwan. Despite this, operations in Armenia are increasingly offering a model for smaller states to make their influence felt in this new dimension of international politics.

Military strength signals capability.
Production capacity signals sustainability.

Across Ukraine and the Middle East, the battlefield is moving upstream: from the front line to refineries, steel plants, drone factories, energy infrastructure, and logistics networks.

Our latest Flashpoint Briefing argues that the systems generating military power have become the primary targets of modern conflict, and that industrial attrition creates vulnerabilities that outlast the conflicts that produce them.

Read more: https://www.isrs.ngo/fpb/the-upstream-battlefield