JASON was asked by the Department of Defense (DoD) to conduct an evaluation of the nation's ability to anticipate
and assess the risk of rare events. "Rare events" specifically refers to catastrophic terrorist events, including the use
of a weapon of mass destruction or other high-profile attacks, where there is sparse (or no) historical record from
which to develop predictive models based on past statistics.
This study was requested by the Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment (SMA) program, which is part of the Joint
Staff/J-3, STRATCOM/GISC, and the Rapid Technology Program Office within the Department of Defense
Research and Engineering.
