Science that helps keep us safe

On Wednesday evening we gave a reception at the British Embassy for scientists, soldiers and senior government officials from the US and the UK.

The event was organised around a workshop presided by Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman of King’s College, London and Professor Eli Berman of UC San Diego, with the support of Research Councils UK (RCUK), the US Department of Defense and the US National Science Foundation.

The participants—academics drawn from fields as diverse as psychology, political science and economics—had come together to think about how their research into social sciences might be applied to global security challenges.

Work of this kind is vital in the face of today’s complex security environment. We no longer need to defend ourselves against Soviet battle tanks rolling across the plains of eastern Germany. But we do have to contend with asymmetric threats, like terrorism, both at home and abroad; the breakdown of authoritarian regimes and the power vacuums they leave behind; and the new virtual battlefield of cyberspace.

Frequently, there is no military solution to these problems.

This fragmented picture poses difficult social, psychological, political, economic and cultural questions. Why do well-off family men, like those convicted of terrorism offences in Birmingham last week, become extremists?

How can international troops keep the peace in far-flung places without exacerbating local tensions?

How can we bridge the fissures in society that perpetuate conflict?

Social science helps us think about these questions and shape our responses.

Moreover, at a time of stretched military budgets, we need to look at less costly ways of providing security. John Kerry’s comment last week that “deploying diplomats today is much cheaper than deploying troops tomorrow” made the point perfectly.

Collaboration is key, both to understanding the threats and to finding cost-effective ways of tackling them. We need collaboration between government, universities, the military, think tanks and non-profits.

We would also like to see more collaboration between the United States and the UK. We are already each other’s number one partners in both security and research (as well as foreign investment).

President Obama describes our military alliance as “essential” and “indispensable”. Research collaboration between our countries has produced no fewer than twenty-six Nobel science prizes. Across RCUK’s broad portfolio of research grants, £1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) is currently committed to joint projects between US and UK universities.

It was immensely encouraging to see how many senior and talented individuals are involved in ensuring that they produce real, practical, beneficial results.