Competing in Undergoverned Spaces
Abstract
A vast majority of U.S. technology is focused on gaining competitive advantage against near peer adversaries in kinetic engagements where there are known rules and players, concrete timelines and clear winners and losers. While these finite games are important, many critical engagements are closer to infinite contests--dynamic, diffuse high dimensionality interactions that play out over long periods with an ultimate goal of resetting the regional power and influence equilibrium. Competing in these contests is critical for successful stabilization and Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief (HADR) missions, as well as operations in undergoverned spaces. Some undergoverned spaces are geographic, where local governance is sufficiently weak such that internal or external parties can compete for influence over the local population. Some contested undergoverned spaces are more conceptual yet still very real, defined by virtual or physical domains that lack or regularly violate ethical, legal, social and institutional order such as supply chains, the cyber-domain, or the creation of new rulesets by unilateral unopposed action in space. The Competing in Undergoverned Spaces developed technologies that focused on successfully competing in infinite contests by developing tools for situational awareness and interpretation of signals, constant acting, assessing and adapting (i.e., iterative Hypothesis A/B testing) and new ways of viewing experimentation from a foundation of asynchronous observations and actions. Specific areas of interest included information, influence or economic tools that rapidly adapt to the environment to yield specific effects that can be sensed. This included developing new options to engage friendly/non-friendly local populations while minimizing the social impact of stabilization. Other areas of interest included sensing tools designed to update pre-existing models to support decision making, and decision tools designed to adapt to changing population or adversary actions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2024
- Source ID
- 53380cc79526e2d3e41dcc672e6e54e7
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- Root: TACTICAL TECHNOLOGY