How does the U.S. understand and adapt deterrence to emerging security challenges that arise from a complex system of integrated, interacting and rapidly evolving challenges?
This NSRI IRAD project, funded in August 2021, sought to expand a multi-actor deterrence analysis methodology, referred to as "MADAM," to address multiple scenarios with increased complexity and for various national security agencies. The long-term objective is to offer a novel and comprehensive framework and methodology to aid U.S. deterrence practitioners, potentially allowing U.S. agencies to integrate decision calculi and deterrence objectives of multiple non-state and state actors.
"As the world becomes more complicated, we need to help deterrence leaders work with multiple actors across multiple domains. We are finding this methodology to be useful at many different levels from big state-to-state scenarios to interagency problem solving. For the U.S. to maintain its advantage we need to make better decisions, more quickly, and with our eyes wide open. This project, I believe, can help us do that." — Dr. Tyler White, associate professor of political science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Research Team
- Principal Investigator: Michelle Black, NSRI fellow and assistant professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
- Deanna House, assistant professor of information systems and quantitative analysis at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
- Elsbeth Magilton, executive director of the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center as well as the Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
- Lana Obradovic, director of international studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
- Tyler White, associate professor of political science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
- Josie Nelson, graduate student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
- Steve Saunders, graduate student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
- Rachel Urban, graduate student at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Milestones
- Built a team of interdisciplinary NU researchers
- Published concept for multi-actor deterrence
- Presented the concept to stakeholders and interested parties
- Applied for several grants
