Measuring the Potential of Social Networks to Affect Resident Popular Behavior in Support of United States Strategic Ends

July 2019 No Comments

“Measuring the Potential of Social Networks to Affect Resident Popular Behavior in Support of United States Strategic Ends“

Speaker: Battle, S. (US 8th Army at Camp Humphreys – Republic of Korea)

Date: 26 July 2019

Speaker Session Preview

SMA hosted a speaker session presented by LTC Stephen Battle (US 8th Army at Camp Humphreys – Republic of Korea) as a part of its SMA General Speaker Series. LTC Battle’s presentation focused on his thesis, which studies historical social movements in order to “determine a prioritized set of processes and network-based nodal relationships that can be used by both strategists during the planning processes and tacticians during the execution phase of campaigns that seek to achieve strategic aims of the US government.” He also highlighted his work’s application to the current US-China-Russia competitive environment. Social movements, such as the US civil rights movement, the solidarity movement in Poland, and the English women’s suffrage movement, serve as examples of how mobilized populations have the capacity to change an entire society’s viewpoint. LTC Battle explained that these movements were organized in a way that set them up for success. He then presented a visualization of a system that can empower or weaken a great power competitor. In this system, a competitor seeks to improve his position within the future environment by seizing resources and opportunities in the current environment and pulling various “levers of empowerment” and “levers of attrition” throughout. LTC Battle explained that in the current competitive environment, the US should allow other countries to operate in the ways that they’re best suited. The US should focus on pulling levers of empowerment and attrition in order to enforce rules and implement checks and balances into the system. This approach would allow for accountability and give the US more control over the competitive environment. LTC Battle also explained the flow of processes, investments, and effects that make a lever turn. Social assessment, social investment, and social appropriation all play a key role in this flow. Moreover, nodes in a social network with high values and brokerages have a high propensity to connect to other nodes in the network, particularly nodes that are central and have the propensity to propagate messages to others. Therefore, in order for a social movement to be successful, it needs not only social capital, but connections to nodes that have the ability to determine what is appropriate behavior and what is legitimate. This successful social movement can then, in turn, make levers of empowerment and attrition move in a system.