Progress and Promise: Research and Engineering for Human Sociocultural Behavior Capability in the U.S. Department of Defense

Progress and Promise is an update on defense-sponsored sociocultural behavior modeling research and engineering from 2008 through 2013. It was prepared by The MITRE Corporation in its role as systems engineer for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Human Social Culture Behavior (HSCB) Modeling Program led by Captain Dylan Schmorrow, USN. CAPT Schmorrow served as the HSCB Program Manager from 2008 through 2013.

The point of reference for this document is a 2006 OSD report on human social cultural behavior modeling research and capability. The report identified major capability gaps and recommended substantially increased investment, particularly in Budget Activities 2 through 4 (Applied Research, Advanced Technology Development, and Advanced Component Development and Prototypes). It also recommended more centralized governance of relevant research across the Department of Defense (DoD).

Progress and Promise gives particular attention to the activities, accomplishments, and impacts of the OSD HSCB Modeling Program, given that it was the primary response to the OSD report. This document also summarizes other major initiatives across DoD and highlights accomplishments and impacts of relevant programs and projects. Finally, it discusses current and expected future national security challenges, outlines a longterm vision for sociocultural behavior capabilities, identifies research thrusts to enable those capabilities, and offers programmatic recommendations to move forward.