Special Operations Research Office

Human Factors Considerations of Undergrounds in Insurgencies Special Operations Research Office

The dynamics of social change are of prime concern for many social scientists. However, in the desire to understand the broad characteristics and societal impact of revolutionary movements, we often neglect the study of the human element involved in them. Those ideologists who write revolutionary dogma or those who report the history of great revolutions speak of the masses as if they were a living being.

But what of the individuals who make up the mass? What are the wants and aspirations that lead individuals to join, to remain in, or to leave these underground movements? How are law-abiding citizens tempted to the dangerous life of the underground? And once committed, what influences them to stay? What rules of behavior and decision enable them to survive such a hazardous existence? To understand the individual, his reasons, his behavior, and the pressures that society places upon him is at the heart of the problem of social change. The battleground of insurgency has been described as the hearts and minds of men. There the understanding of the human element is basic to understanding the dynamics of social change.