America today faces more challenges from more varied sources than at any time in the recent past. From the rise of new powers to ethnic strife, disease, and poverty, from climate change to failed and failing states and the rise of violent extremism, the United States will increasingly be forced to grapple with unprecedented social change.
To address these challenges, Americans and their government need a better understanding of the factors and causes behind these changes, what they might mean for the United States, and what the future might bring.
The Department of Defense’s Minerva Initiative is intended to help develop that understanding. By drawing upon the knowledge, ideas, and creativity of the nation’s universities, the Department aims to foster a new generation of engaged scholarship in the social sciences that seeks to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
