On July 28-30 2008, the Center for Technology & Security Policy at National Defense University gathered together over one hundred distinguished social scientists, government analysts, and private-sector modeling experts for its Human Social and Cultural Behavior (HSBC) Modeling Workshop. The workshop opened with remarks from the key DoD managers invested in the workshop's results - Robert Foster, Director of the Biosystems branch of the Office of Defense Research & Engineering, and Dr. Andre Van Tilborg, Deputy Undersecretary for Science & Technology. The speakers empasized both the potential of HSBC modeling to inform OOTW missions, and the need to 'make the leap' in capability that will make HSBC modeling efficient and reliable.

The workshop itself began each day with presentations in the morning, followed by discussion groups in the afternoons. Over the whole conference, attendees listened to seven presentations from leading modeling and social science experts regarding the results of recent fieldwork and tool development. After each set of presentations, attendees participated in a series of working groups to discuss an ambitious yet plausible vision for HSBC modeling. CTNSP hoped to forge consenus on what achievements should or could be expected from the modeling community as a whole; on what problems were the most pressing to solve; and on what might be promising paths to solve them.

Following the conclusion of the workshop, a Synthesis Team led by senior NDU Staff began to capture, organize and present the conclusions established by the working groups, using several formats, including an MS PowerPoint briefing, an article-length final report, and eventually a book-length presentation of the plenary session papers and workshop conclusions. These tasks are still in progress. All of these products will be made available on this website at the earliest possible date.

Below is a summary of the workshop agenda. Each plenary session presentation should contain a link to the formal paper upon which the presentation was based. Furthermore, each working group should be linked to an MS PowerPoint briefing on the findings of that group, as collected by its own Synthesis Team and/or team leaders.

If you have any questions about the workshop’s operations or its results, please contact Mike Baranick at baranickM@ndu.edu.