Mitigate IED threat by Leveraging an Effect-based Approach

The Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) has identified three lines of operations to combat the IED threat: defeat the device, defeat the network, and train the force. While defeating the device is necessary, attacking the network is the only line of operation that supports intervention to the left of the bang and counterinsurgency operations as insurgents adjust their tactics and weaponry. Attacking the network addresses the underlying insurgency support structure that enables them to exist and operate among indigenous populations. These networks are dependent on the local populace support or passivity. Consequently, both insurgencies and stabilizing elements, such as provincial reconstruction teams, are in a constant struggle to gain support of the local populace because in the end the local people decide who wins. This struggle impacts daily operations of US forces. To enable commanders to understand the root causes and complex interactions among the local populace, insurgency and coalition forces that motivate and enable terrorist activities and their supporting networks, Securboration is teaming with socio-cultural modeling expert Dr. Eugene Santos from Dartmouth College to develop the Effects-Based Approach to Neutralizing IEDs, or EBANI. BENEFIT: EBANI has the potential to provide great benefit to stability and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. EBANI can aid Afghanistan Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) by helping to strengthen provincial and district-level institutions and empower local leaders who support the Central Government in Afghanistan. EBANI can help PRTs create conditions that make increased political, social, and economic development possible.  This will contribute to diminishing the insurgency threat, as they cannot survive without local support.  The result will be a large savings in hardware procurement to combat IEDs, and emphasis on addressing root causes that allow insurgencies to exist, which is scalable across tactics and weaponry. Additionally, EBANI has several private sector opportunities that focus on understanding local populace perceptions. These includes business competitive intelligence (treating the competing business as the insurgency trying to gain local / customer support), politics (to understand and align the local populace inclinations), world banking initiatives (to evaluate effects of monetary stimulus strategies on the local populace), and the interactive gaming environments (incorporated in a gaming engine to enhance realism of existing platforms).