The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a registered charity with offices in Washington, London, Manama and Singapore, 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; Strategic Survey, an annual review of world affairs; Survival, a bi-monthly journal of international affairs; Strategic Comments, an online analysis of topical issues in international affairs; and the Adelphi series of books on issues of international security.

‘In a world of complex security challenges the need for serious, thoughtful analysis is greater than ever. Survival’s combination of elegant writing and rigorous scholarship from the world’s top experts makes it essential reading for both practitioners and academics.’Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, War Studies King's College London

• Survival 63.6 (December 2021–January 2022), pp. 1–252The Contested Origin of SARS-CoV-2, by Gigi Kwik GronvallThe Crisis of Liberalism and the Western Alliance, by Lawrence FreedmanEuro-Atlantic Security and the China Nexus, by François HeisbourgGetting Restraint Right: Liberal Internationalism and American Foreign Policy, by Daniel Deudney and G. John IkenberryNegotiating with North Korea … Again, by Robert L. GallucciThe Perspective from Pyongyang: Limits of Compromise, by Andrei LankovEngaging North Korea: The Warming-up Phase, by Målfrid Braut-HegghammerNoteworthyChina Looks at the Korean Peninsula: The ‘Two Transitions’, by Robert S. RossStrengthening the US Partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces, by Federico Manfredi FirmianDisarming Arguments: Public Opinion and Nuclear Abolition, by Ondrej Rosendorf, Michal Smetana and Marek VrankaStranger than Fiction: Imagining Our Climate Future, by Ben Barry and Jeffrey MazoColombia’s River of Life and Death, by Russell CrandallBook ReviewsCounter-terrorism and Intelligence, by Jonathan StevensonUnited States, by David C. UngerEurope, by Hanns W. MaullDomestic Politics and the Global Balance, by Erik Jones