Socio-Cultural Modelling of Operational Interaction with Influential Actors. Preliminary Investigation

The interaction with the influential actors during international operations is essential for getting access to information, performing negotiations, as well as informing about the international forces' motives and intentions. Currently, however, the commanders only have little support, if any, for planning and performing these interactions besides their own understanding of the situation. Sweden and France therefore plan to cooperatively develop a conceptual demonstrator of a support system for the interaction with influential actors based on the product Intègre by Normind that uses paraconsistent logic. Intègre can represent and reason with the inconsistent motives and intentions among the influential actors, and provides an interaction concept that enables an iterative plan development. This preliminary investigation describes the rationale for the project, typical characteristics of influential actors, results from a workshop with Swedish officers that have experience as military observers, current developments in paraconsistent logic, and some conclusions about the requirements on the support system.