Speaking at the Naval Industry Partnership Conference in Washington, D.C., on July 28, 2005, Dr. John Marburger, Director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology addressed the need for scientific innovations to help combat terrorism.
In his remarks, Dr. Marburg highlighted the role that social science will play in understanding "the nature of the agressor." Said Dr. Marburg,
"Discovering how and why individuals become mentally committed to terrorism ranks high among science priorities for combating terrorism."
Dr. Marburg went on to describe the role that START will play in looking at the causes of terrorism and strategies to counterterrorism, examining the psychological impact of terrorism on society, and strengthening the population's resilience in the face of the terrorism.
He called the establishment of the Center a "commendable response to a priority need."
The full speech, "Enabling Naval Innovations to Win the Global War on Terrorism," is available at http://www.start.umd.edu/start/announcements/marburger_2005_07_28.pdf (Adobe Acrobat pdf file; 26K).