Sept. 3, 2020

Inside the Dangerous Mission to Understand What Makes Extremists Tick—and How to Change Their Minds

Artis International researchers have received funding from Minerva in their efforts to push the boundaries of social science, through everything from experimental surveys on armed forces to psychological tests on imprisoned extremists.

Aug. 28, 2020

New Owl in the Olive Tree post "Trust, Confidence, and Organizational Decisions about AI Adoption: The Impact for US Defense"

Minerva-funded researcher, Michael C. Horowitz's Owl in the Olive Tree post "Trust, Confidence, and Organizational Decisions about AI Adoption: The Impact for US Defense". Potentially rapid advances in autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI) raise important questions about how technology affects human behavior inside and outside the military domain. As ever, the effective adoption and use of emerging technologies is much more about people and organizations than about the technology itself.

Aug. 14, 2020

Coronavirus Misinformation is a Global Issue, But There Are Regional Differences

Minerva-funded researcher, Jacob Shapiro in collaboration with the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project and Microsoft Research began cataloguing COVID-19 misinformation to explore the evolution of specific COVID-19 narratives. Shapiro and colleagues identified a unique feature of COVID-19.

July 29, 2020

The Pandemic has Slashed Scientists’ Productivity

Dashun Wang, a Minerva-funded researcher along with nine other researchers disseminated a survey to U.S. and Europe-based researchers in mid-April and received roughly 4,5000 responses that revealed clear patterns around who is cutting back their research the most in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

July 15, 2020

Best Practices for Supporting the Reintegration and Rehabilitation of Chidlren from Formerly ISIS-Controlled Territories

This brief contributes to this growing body of work by providing a specialized psychosocial approach based in child trauma theory and intervention research that directly addresses the multilevel needs of children returning from formerly ISIS-controlled territories.

July 10, 2020

DOD Awards Minerva Program Grants to Study Peer and Near-peer Competition and Foreign Malign Influence

The Department of Defense has awarded $6.7 million in grants to four university-based Minerva faculty teams to support research in social and behavioral science. Congress funded these awards to examine issues related to peer and near-peer competition and foreign malign influence.

July 6, 2020

Machine Learning Can Help Get COVID-19 Aid to Those Who Need it Most

Joshua Blumenstock, a Minerva-funded researcher had a conversation with government officials from the Togolese Republic in West Africa in regards to how big data machine learning might help them to identify households who have been impacted by COVID-19 in order to provide financial assistance.

June 23, 2020

The Department of Defense Announces Awards of $20,000 each for the 2020-2021 Cohort of the Minerva-U.S. Institute of Peace, Peace and Security Dissertation Fellows

The Department of Defense Minerva Research Initiative is pleased to announce the 2020-2021 cohort of the Minerva-USIP, Peace and Security Dissertation Fellows.

June 22, 2020

New Owl in the Olive Tree post "Military Means and Political Ends"

Minerva-funded researchers, Erik Gartzke and Jon R. Lindsay's Owl in the Olive Tree post "Military Means and Political Ends". The portfolio of military options available to policymakers and commanders today is large and growing. U.S. military power increasingly relies on a many different types of platforms and capabilities from different services. Threats to U.S. military dominance are becoming more complex as well. As the 2017 U.S. National Security Strategy asserts, “State and non-state actors place the safety of the American people and the Nation’s economic vitality at risk by exploiting vulnerabilities across the land, air, maritime, space, and cyberspace domains.”

June 3, 2020

Mia Bloom's new article "The Forgotten Children of ISIS Fighters"

In Bloom's article she discusses children from war zones, who now find themselves without country, citizenship, protection or much compassion. The countries from which ISIS children originate are confronted with a grave humanitarian crisis. Leaving children to languish and die in refugee camps and prisons is an unconscionable abuse of human rights.