Colloque S&T Symposium 2007: Understanding The Human Dimension in 21st Century Conflict/Warfare (Comprendre la Dimension Humaine du Conflit et de la Conduite de la Guerre au XXIe Siecle)

A record-high audience of over 200 participants took part in the 2007 S&T Symposium, held 25 & 26 April in Ottawa. This was the seventh in the series of DRDC symposia, which has now become a DND symposium with the cosponsoring between DRDC and CFD. The opening remarks by the Symposium Moderator detailed the past six symposia and noted that these had not covered the area of social science. Yet ultimately, it is this human dimension of conflict, not technological prowess that determines success or failure in operations. The purpose of this year's S&T Symposium 2007, as well as that of the symposia planned for the subsequent 2 years, is to explore the complexity of human conflict, in all of its vagaries. Understanding the human dimension in conflict, however, is complex because humans are the product of many interacting non-linear systems that give rise to many interacting non-linear behaviours. In order to better structure the effort, the Symposium will be organized along three themes that derive from the classifications of human conflict found in drama. Drama, after all, deals almost exclusively with human conflict. Drama theory distinguishes three classes of human conflict -- person-versus-person, person-versus-nature, and person-versus-self -- and militaries inevitably deal with all three. It is these classes of conflict that will inform how we address our future security environment. Discussions from Defence R&D Canada Science and Technology Symposium 2007. Understanding the Human Dimension in 21st Century Conflict/Warfare: Setting the Stage with the Future Security Environment held Ottawa, Canada on 25-26 Apr 2007. The original document contains color images.