Social and Behavioral Sciences for National Security: Proceedings of a Summit (2017)
Chapter: Appendix A: Social and Behavioral Sciences for National Security: A Decadal Survey Statement of Task
Appendix A
Social and Behavioral Sciences for National Security: A Decadal Survey Statement of Task
The Academies will carry out a decadal survey on the social and behavioral sciences (SBS) in areas relevant to national security in two integrated phases. The first phase, a national summit (workshop) to be held this fall, will help establish the framework for the survey and reinforce the commitment of the Intelligence Community (IC) to conduct a full decadal survey. Concurrent with the workshop, staff will begin to work on the second phase, including developing a slate of nominees for the survey committee and conducting other preparatory work (e.g., outreach to professional associations, identifying venues for town hall meetings). A steering committee will be appointed to plan the summit, a separate survey committee will be appointed to conduct the survey, drawing on the membership of the steering committee.
SUMMIT STATEMENT OF TASK
An ad hoc steering committee will organize a 1.5 day summit (workshop) in Washington, D.C. to highlight SBS research that may have relevance to the IC. The committee will plan and organize the summit, select and invite speakers and discussants, and moderate the discussions. A summary of the workshop presentations will be prepared by an independent rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines.
DECADAL SURVEY STATEMENT OF TASK
An ad hoc consensus committee will be appointed to conduct the decadal survey aimed at identifying opportunities that are poised to contrib-
ute significantly to the IC’s analytic responsibilities. The study will identify opportunities throughout the social sciences (e.g., sociology, demography, political science, economics, and anthropology) and from behavioral sciences (e.g., psychology, cognition, and neuroscience) and will draw on discussions at the summit to frame its inquiry. Attention will also be paid to work in allied professional disciplines such as engineering, business, and law, and a full variety of cross-disciplinary, historical, case study, participant, and phronetic approaches.
The committee will work with Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and security community members to understand government needs and expectations. The final report will be based on the committee’s consideration of broad national security priorities; relevant capabilities of elements within the security community to support and apply SBS research findings; cost and technical readiness; likely growth of research programs; emerging SBS data, procedures, personnel, and other resources; and opportunities to leverage related research activities not directly supported by government. The committee will specify a range of relevant work that could be useful to the IC for their consideration in developing future research priorities.
The committee’s primary tasks will be:
- Assess progress in addressing selected major social and behavioral scientific challenges that might prove useful to national security. Include discussion of approaches that are gaining strength and those that are losing strength. Where possible, rely on published meta-analyses.
- Identify SBS opportunities that can be used to guide security community investment decisions and application efforts over the next 10 years.
- Specify approaches to facilitate productive interchange between the security community and the external social science research community.
