KEY EVENTS  

During the Decoded Launch Roundtable, presenters Candyce Kelshall and 

Natalie Archutowski discussed the reasoning and methods behind creating 

DECODED: Understanding the Post-COVID-19 Security Landscape Using 

Structured Models, Approaches, and Analytic Techniques.  

NATURE OF DISCUSSION  

Presentation  

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a ‘new normal’ which requires tools such 

as Structured Analytical Techniques (SATs) and Structured Models and 

Analytical Techniques (SMATs) to gain a comprehensive and nuanced 

understanding of how we might adapt to this new social, economic and political 

landscape.  

BACKGROUND  

Presentation  

CASIS Vancouver has published DECODED which gives an in-depth analysis 

on some aspects of daily life which have been significantly affected by the 

COVID-19 pandemic across the globe and provides insights on how we might 

adapt to the new normal. This is done through the use of SMATs, as well as a 

collaboration with multi-disciplinary perspectives.   

DECODED LAUNCH ROUNDTABLE 

Date: September 24, 2020  

Disclaimer: This briefing note contains the 

encapsulation of views presented throughout the 

evening and does not exclusively represent the 

views of the speaker or the Canadian Association 

for Security and Intelligence Studies.   



CASIS Vancouver   62 

The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare 

Volume 3, Issue 2  

 

Question Period  

In order to navigate the ‘new normal’, the public must use critical thinking and 

maintain social cohesion. By using SMATs, one is able to analyze a group or 

organization rather than individuals which can be difficult to navigate. Therefore, 

this allows one to sort through misinformation to create informative and 

comprehensive knowledge on the crisis in question.  

KEY POINTS OF DISCUSSION AND WEST COAST PERSPECTIVES 

Presentation  

• COVID-19 is creating a new normal which Gen Z’s are using to demand and 

promote changes to the expectations of equity and equality around the globe; 

law enforcement and decision makers must adapt in order to protect social 

cohesion.  

• SATS and SMATs, including the Pinehurst Model, Counter Violence Grid 

and Discord Model, can be used to generate comprehensive and nuanced 

understandings of complex security issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.  

• Critical thinking, resilience and collaboration are necessary to navigate the 

vast amount of information available in the Digital Age.  

• Key points of interest that have been affected by the pandemic are:   

o Food security 

o Extremism 

o Misinformation 

o Human Acuity 

o Transport and Infrastructure 

o Economic Landscape  

• Using models and techniques that look at groups rather than individuals can 

help give insight as to whether a group or social movement might escalate to 

violence or not.  

Question Period  

• In these times of change, pushing for tolerance and keeping social cohesion 

high can be done by holding your community, friends and family to account.  

• Violence does not have to be physical to do harm. There is a significant 

amount of soft harm that occurs both in physical spaces and online.  

• The basis upon which SMATs function effectively is that they look at social 

network theory which observes psychological community engagement 

environments and is designed therefore to stop individual profiling.  



CASIS Vancouver   63 

The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare 

Volume 3, Issue 2  

 

• The nature of a SMAT is to reduce cognitive bias, meaning that ‘good data 

in equals good data out’. Diversity is key for developing questions and 

techniques to find the most effective way to decode information.  

• There is a shocking amount of misinformation being liked and shared by 

people who do not care whether what they are reading is true. The challenge 

then is to sort through all of that information to decipher what is true and what 

is misinformation.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License  

© (CASIS VANCOUVER, 2020)  

Published by the Journal of Intelligence, Conflict and Warfare and Simon Fraser 

University  

Available from: https://jicw.org/  

 

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/