A Decadal Survey of the Social and Behavioral Sciences: A Research Agenda for Advancing Intelligence Analysis (2019)
Chapter: PART II: OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE IC
PART II
OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE IC
We turn next to opportunities in the diverse landscape of social and behavioral science (SBS) research for strengthening the analytic capability of the Intelligence Community (IC) workforce. In Chapter 5, we begin with a sweep across the disciplines in this landscape, exploring examples that demonstrate both the range of potential opportunities and the importance to intelligence analysis of a sophisticated understanding of human and group behavior. Chapter 6 focuses on a specific, critical, example of the power of SBS research to enhance analysis: the emerging transdisciplinary1 field of social cybersecurity. This field has developed for the express purpose of integrating SBS research from several disciplines to address the highly technical challenge of understanding cyber-based threats and strengthening the cybersecurity of the United States.
We then turn from ways of strengthening the substance of analysis to ways of strengthening the ways in which the analyst’s work is carried out. Chapter 7 examines the rapidly expanding possibilities for sophisticated human–machine collaboration within the IC, and the vital role of research on how human beings function within teams that also rely on autonomous machine agents and supporting technologies in effective utilization of future developments in artificial intelligence and other technologies. Finally, Chapter 8 focuses on the importance of marshaling a robust body of research from industrial-organizational psychology and human resource development to strengthen the IC’s capacity to attract, select, train, retain, and support a workforce that is fully ready to take advantage of these opportunities.
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1 A transdisciplinary field is a new academic discipline that merges the intellectual approaches of two or more existing fields.
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