MIT Security Studies Program Research Projects
The following are some of the current research projects at the
MIT Security Studies Program.
Transforming the Rewards for Military
Service
The U.S. military faces a future that is vastly different from
the past. Policies related to managing the all-volunteer force and
materially rewarding men and women in uniform for their service
to country are crucial to the Defense Department's ability to attract,
retain, and motivate people with the skills it will need as it transforms
in other dimensions to meet the security challenges of the future
and to capitalize on emerging technological opportunities. Yet most
of the policies in force today stem from the 1940s or earlier. A
growing array of researchers and policy makers have voiced concern
that the inflexibility and economic inefficiency of those policies
hinder military effectiveness, lead to dissatisfaction among members
of the military and their families, and divert resources from other
aspects of transformation. Personnel system reform will be an essential
component of military innovation to meet the strategic challenges
of the future and to capitalize on important technological opportunities.
This project aims to create a blueprint for change that builds upon
the reform initiatives already underway in the Pentagon, identifies
strategies for overcoming the obstacles to change, and creates momentum
for continued fundamental transformation.
'Transforming the Rewards for Military Service' is managed by Cindy
Williams, a Principal Research Scientist in the MIT Security
Studies Program.
For further project information please visit Transforming
the Rewards for Military Service.
NAVSEA research group
Professor Harvey Sapolsky
is currently working on a project for Naval Sea Systems Command
(NAVSEA) and has created the NAVSEA research group at SSP to assist
him. NAVSEA is the agency that manages a major portion of the Navy's
acquisitions. The trend within the Department of Defense is for
the weapon acquisition system to become increasingly more centralized
and privatized. The SSP NAVSEA research group is studying alternative
structures for DoD procurement and research and development activities.
The intent is to create a series of policy options that if implemented
would offer greater flexibility, innovation and contractor oversight
than afforded by the current system. The group consists of SSP Fellow
Peter Duffy, who is on leave from the Naval Underwater Warfare Center,
and Van Gurley, the current SSP Navy Federal Executive Fellow, Research
Associates Eugene Gholz and Sandy Weiner, Vikram Mansharamani from
the Sloan School of Management, and SSP students Russell Rumbaugh
and David Blum. Participated is expected from several senior civil
servants. The group is planning two or three workshops in Washington,
DC on this topic over the next few months.
Working Group on Insurgency and Irregular Warfare
This working group will bring together academics from various
disciplines - international relations, comparative politics, and the natural
sciences to explore current problems related to insurgency and
counter-insurgency. The goal is to generate meaningful scholarly work on a
host of current academic and policy issues that straddle existing disciplinary
boundaries. By engaging graduate students and faculty from a number of fields
at MIT, the founders hope to stimulate new thinking on a number of important
topics.
Roger Petersen is the faculty sponsor of this working group.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Colin Jackson ( jacksonc@mit.edu ) or Austin Long ( along@mit.edu ).
For more information please visit Insurgency and Irregular Warfare Working Group.
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