DARPA's Policy Analysis Market for Intelligence: Outside the Box or Off the Wall?

Abstract

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was born in the uncertain days after the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1958. Its mission was to become an engine of technological change that would bridge the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use (Bray, 2003). Over the last five decades, the Agency has efficiently gone about its business in relative obscurity, in many cases not getting as much credit as it deserved. The Agency first developed the model for the internet as well as stealth technology. More recently, DARPA innovations have spanned a wide array of technologies. To name a couple: computers that correct a user's mistakes or fix themselves when they malfunction and new stimulants to keep soldiers awake and alert for seven consecutive days.