Survival: April–May 2026

Survival, the IISS’s bimonthly journal, challenges conventional wisdom and brings fresh, often controversial, perspectives on strategic issues of the moment.

In this issue:

• Pondering the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in warfare, Nathan Orlando explores the crucial role human judgement has played in averting the use of nuclear weapons

· Anwar Mhajne argues that, by cloaking human biases in apparent neutrality, the employment of AI in combat could marginalise moral judgement and critical assessment

· Emile Hokayem assesses that the United States and Israel’s war against Iran could lead all three combatants to claim victory while ending up strategically worse off

· Paul Fraioli observes that the most consuming difficulties with the rise of AI will be social and cultural

· And nine other thought-provoking pieces, as well as our regular Book Reviews and Noteworthy column.

To read free articles from the journal, please visit its homepage at https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/tsur20.

Editor: Dr Dana Allin

Managing Editor: Jonathan Stevenson

Associate Editor: Carolyn West

Editorial Assistant: Anna Gallagher

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a registered charity with offices in Washington, London, Manama, Singapore and Berlin, is the world’s leading authority on political–military conflict. It is the primary independent source of accurate, objective information on international strategic issues. Publications include The Military Balance, an annual reference work on each nation’s defence capabilities; The Armed Conflict Survey, an annual review of the world’s active conflicts; Survival, a bimonthly journal on international affairs; Strategic Comments, an online analysis of topical issues in international affairs; and the Adelphi series of books on issues of international security.