Human Social Systems
Abstract
The social sciences provide essential theories and models that can enable deeper understanding of human social systems and behaviors relevant to national security such as humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and stability support missions, as well as tactical, operational, strategic, and policy-level decision-making across the DoD. However, current limitations to the speed, scalability, and reproducibility of empirical social science research continue to hamper its practical use by the DoD. Additionally, current social behavioral models often fail to accurately interpret social behaviors because they do not sufficiently capture diversity of context. The Human Social Systems thrust will address these limitations by focusing on the following technical challenges: (1) developing and validating new methods, models and tools to perform rigorous, reproducible experimental research at scales necessary to understand emergent properties of human social systems; (2) identifying methods to better characterize and quantify properties, dynamics, and behaviors of different social systems to enable better and more confident forecasting of changes in social systems, particularly when under stress; (3) developing an understanding of the complex effect of context and incorporating these effects into social science models; and (4) developing strategic forecasting and operational decision aiding capabilities that account for local contextual and cultural factors to assess the likely effectiveness of and/or responses to actions within an Area of Operations. This research thrust will provide DoD with new, reliable strategies to better understand and respond to social system issues at multiple scales (from small group to cities and/or regions) and will significantly improve DoD stabilization, deterrence, and/or gray zone mission outcomes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2023
- Source ID
- ea44dc8869194f8bd338a9927e5c86ce