Building a Geosocial Semantic Web for Military Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations

The United States and its Allied Forces have had tremendous success in combat operations. This includes combat in Germany, Japan and more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. However not all of our stabilization and reconstruction operations (SARO) have been as successful. Recently several studies have been carried out on SARO by National Defense University as well as for the Army Science and Technology. One of the major conclusions is that we need to plan for SARO while we are planning for combat. That is, we cannot start planning for SARO after the enemy regime has fallen. In addition, the studies have shown that security, power and jobs are key ingredients for success during SARO. For example, it is essential that security be maintained. Furthermore, it is important to give powerful positions to those from the fallen regime provided they are trustworthy. It is critical that investments are made to stimulate the local economies. The studies have also analyzed the various technologies that are needed for successfully carrying out SARO which includes sensors, robotics and information management. In our research we are focusing on the information management component for SARO. As stated in the work by the Naval Postgraduate School, we need to determine the social, political and economic relationships between the local communities as well as determine who the important people are. This work has also identified the 5Ws (Who, When, What, Where and Why) and the (H).