That's not the program's goal. >> The Minerva Research Initiative supports social science research aimed at improving our basic understanding of security, broa

That's not the program's goal. >> The Minerva Research Initiative supports social science research aimed at improving our basic understanding of security, broadly defined. [...] The goal is to improve DoD’s basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the U.S. [0] The emphasis here is on background, that should then better inform regional DoD strategy, that will then... well, 'not screw up things like Iraq' seems a fair summary. For the amounts, this seems like an excellent use of DoD money. Throwing military hardware and soldier time/lives away in pursuit of doomed to fail goals is expensive and often counterproductive. Fight smarter, not harder. [0] https://minerva.defense.gov/ https://minerva.defense.gov/