Exploring Valka Mir Foundation's Research

In the contemporary landscape of scientific inquiry, the role of dedicated institutions in advancing knowledge cannot be overstated. The Valka Mir Foundation exemplifies such an institution, committed to fostering a comprehensive understanding of complex psychosocial scientific phenomena of intractable violence. Through a meticulous and interdisciplinary approach, the foundation seeks to bridge the gap between advanced research and public comprehension. This article aims to elucidate the core research focus of the Valka Mir Foundation, providing an in-depth exploration of its methodologies, thematic priorities, and the broader implications of its work.

The Valka Mir Research Explained: An Overview of Institutional Priorities

Valka-Mir Human Security Foundation operates as a behavioural Intelligence Unit supporting Non-Lethal Conflict Intervention by Allied Special Operations Forces in under and ungoverned spaces of violent civil conflict.

Valka-Mir’s focus is on civilian participation in genocide, ethnic & cultural cleansing, wartime sexual violence, insurgency, terrorism, smuggling, and human trafficking, as well as communities that are unable to adapt to overwhelming globalizing changes in trade, travel, technology, and communication.

Valka-Mir conducts original field research in denied and dangerous research settings, using data colle

ction and analytical methods focused on the psychosocial-emotional aspects of the civilian community that drives the conflict and inhibits resolution by normal means of military, diplomatic, and humanitarian intervention.

Valka-Mir also conducts original training in the psychosocial-emotional variables of target audience training, messaging, engagement, and targeting for personnel & units deploying into violent civilian conflict zones.

Valka-Mir was formed by PhD researchers-trainers for the express purpose of researching violent civil conflicts in dangerous research settings. We employ the Human Domain Matrix, a proprietary analytical tool that we use for data collection and analysis, along with teaching and training.

Valka-Mir’s members include a unique assemblage of former rebel soldiers, Peshmerga fighters, Army Green Beret and Navy SEALs, as well as survivors of genocide and extreme violent conflicts.  We are drawn from every continent and possess firsthand experience in surviving, researching, and participating in violent communal conflict that collectively covers every Combatant Command (COCOM). Valka-Mir partners collectively speak a number of required SOF languages. This linguistic capacity allows us to incorporate an understanding of the deepest linguistic nuances and employ cultural psycholinguistics into message construction and product development.

Methodological Approaches and Research Techniques

The Valka Mir Foundation’s research agenda is characterized by a deliberate emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and the integration of diverse scientific domains. This approach is predicated on the recognition that contemporary scientific challenges often transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. Consequently, the foundation's projects synthesize data collection and analysis from fields such as Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Geography, Geology, History, Communication, and Literature.

Valka-Mir uses mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) research design to collect and analyse data. Qualitative methods include in-depth case studies, ethnography, individual interviews and focus groups that are specifically focused on phenomenological inquiry to achieve in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the complex, ongoing, lived psychosocial and emotional experiences of the target audience segments.

Valka-Mir’s methodology affords the SOF operators to receive field research in real time, adding to their organic intelligence assets to validate and integrate the findings. Most often, as discovered while working in MISTF-A in Kabul and MISTF-C in Qatar, Valka-Mir’s thick data research creates a new paradigm for ‘Population Intelligence’ that fundamentally works to advance and improve the SOF Military Detachment’s qualitive and quantitative understanding of the target audience.

When possible, the use of technology (tablets, smart phone/recorders with GPS tackers) are used to facilitate research, collect and transmit raw data, to track the progress and safety of the partner’s field research team. Senior researchers who maintain DoD security clearances receive and analyse data and are connected to the MISO customer, infusing updates and insight into the target audience assessment daily.

Qualitative analysis and findings are triangulated with quantitative findings, and all field research is triangulated with multiple dimensions of open source PAI from desk research. Th

e makeup of the Valka-Mir partnership creates a unique capacity to ensure that the phenomenological lived experiences of the target audience segments being researched, are translated both linguistically and culturally by senior researchers who possess the personal, professional, experiential, and academic background to ensure that our research is not “lost-in-translation.”

Access & Placement in Dangerous Research Settings

Valka-Mir research partners and associates have familial connections to the target audiences that are of interest to SOF, which provides research access and placement into these difficult or otherwise denied spaces without creating undue notice or interest. Once within their home spaces, cultural, religious, ethnic and other social lines of belonging and ownership, as well as the strict non-attribution of the research, provides them with protection that would never be afforded to other Western researchers. This process achieves a significant level of standardization based on the actual target audience differences in thought, emotion, and historical narrative experience.

Central to the foundation’s mission is the facilitation of interdisciplinary collaboration, which is achieved through the establishment of research consortia and partnerships with government organisations including NATO. As a behavioral intelligence capability, Valka-Mir supports the efforts of Special Operations Forces by providing a robust network with operational reach into multiple, hard to access regions across the globe. The team uses the most advanced applied research, training, assessment, and cutting-edge social science methods to support operators in both deployed and training environments. 

Valka-Mir researchers have decades of peer reviewed data collection, analysis and experience in developing research studies, designing qualitative and quantitative research questions (RQs) and Research Instruments (RIs) that are used to support reliable and scientifically validated field and desk research. Each researcher has a substantive network of community gatekeepers and trained data collectors in the field who collect data in hard-to-reach locations.

In addition to generating new knowledge, the foundation is dedicated to the effective dissemination of research findings. This is accomplished through a variety of channels, including peer-reviewed publications, extensive in-person and distance learning courses, and the translation of academic material into graphic adult learning novels that employ graphic ethnography, psychology, and sociology to illustrate the underlying mechanisms and dynamics of human behaviour in violent conflict. The goal is to render complex scientific concepts accessible without compromising their intellectual rigor.