Networks and Network Analysis for Defence and Security

Anthony Masys is a Defence Scientist for the Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada, Centre for Security Science. As Scientific Advisor to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for both the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and G8/G20 Summits, Dr Masys has had significant influence in the development of a 'whole of government' Major Events Security Framework. The MESF is a collaborative planning environment that is rooted in the principles of Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning. Dr Masys has a BSc in Physics and MSc in Underwater Acoustics and PhD in Sociology. His research interests focus on complex socio-technical systems, human error, safety culture, systems thinking, risk, crisis and disaster management, knowledge management and organizational learning. He has published extensively in the domains of physics and the social sciences. His recent book: 'Opening the Black Box of Human Error' focuses on the 'opaque' veneer of 'blamism' that characterizes pilot/human error and obscures the fact that it is comprised of a network of alliances. Through the lens of Actor Network Theory and drawing upon Systems Thinking, Complexity Theory, Psychology and the science of networks, Dr Masys describes a landscape of inherent relationality and a space of possibilities. Opening the Black Box of Human Error presents a new framework for exploring complex socio-technical systems revealing a de-centered accident aetiology residing within a network of heterogeneous elements characterized as the 'hybrid collectif' (Callon and Law, 1995). The analysis sheds light on a problem space in which it is difficult to separate human and non-human (technological) actors, highlighting as Latour (1994) argues, that '...every human interaction is socio-technical'. This work should be especially useful to professionals in Human Factors with an interest in complex socio- technical systems and accident aetiology.