Springer Unconventional Conflict: A Modeling Perspective (Understanding Complex Systems)

This book describes issues in modeling unconventional conflict and suggests a new way to do the modeling.  It presents an ontology that describes the unconventional conflict domain, which allows for greater ease in modeling unconventional conflict. Supporting holistic modeling, which means that we can see the entire picture of what needs to be modeled, the ontology allows us to make informed decisions about what to model and what to omit. The unconventional conflict ontology also separates the things we understand best from the things we understand least. This separation means that we can perform verification, validation and accreditation (VV&A) more efficiently and can describe the competence of the model more accurately. However, before this message can be presented in its entirety the supporting body of knowledge has to be explored. For this reason, the book offers chapters that focus on the description of unconventional conflict and the analyses that have been performed, modeling, with a concentration on past efforts at modeling unconventional conflict, the precursors to the ontology, and VV&A. Unconventional conflict is a complex, messy thing. It normally involves multiple actors, with their own conflicting agendas and differing concepts of legitimate actions. This book will present a useful introduction for researchers and professionals within the field. Review “I consider this book to be a must-have reference. As a career operations research analyst, it is a real practitioner’s guide to unconventional conflict. Even more importantly, an analyst can find important information in this book for any sub-element required of unconventional modeling. … This book stands as an excellent example of the complexities in unconventional conflict.” (William P. Fox, Interfaces, Vol. 47 (5), October, 2017) From the Back Cover This book describes issues in modeling unconventional conflict and suggests a new way to do the modeling.  It presents an ontology that describes the unconventional conflict domain, which allows for greater ease in modeling unconventional conflict. Supporting holistic modeling, which means that we can see the entire picture of what needs to be modeled, the ontology allows us to make informed decisions about what to model and what to omit. The unconventional conflict ontology also separates the things we understand best from the things we understand least. This separation means that we can perform verification, validation and accreditation (VV&A) more efficiently and can describe the competence of the model more accurately. However, before this message can be presented in its entirety the supporting body of knowledge has to be explored. For this reason, the book offers chapters that focus on the description of unconventional conflict and the analyses that have been performed, modeling, with a concentration on past efforts at modeling unconventional conflict, the precursors to the ontology, and VV&A. Unconventional conflict is a complex, messy thing. It normally involves multiple actors, with their own conflicting agendas and differing concepts of legitimate actions. This book will present a useful introduction for researchers and professionals within the field. About the Author DEAN S. HARTLEY III is the Principal of Hartley Consulting.  He is also the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Vice President of Sisyphus Energy, Inc. (SEI).  Previously he was a Senior Member of the Research Staff at the Department of Energy Oak Ridge Facilities (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y12 Site and East Tennessee Technology Park).  Hartley graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Wofford College in 1968, majoring in mathematics and foreign languages.  He received his Ph.D. in piecewise linear topology from the University of Georgia in 1973.   Hartley is a past Vice President of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), a