Senior Pentagon officials announced today that by 2016, women will be allowed to join front-line combat roles, including infantry, armor, and special operations. The Pentagon is developing gender-neutral tests that men and women must pass to qualify. The services and U.S. Special Operations Command have filed separate plans, all of which are incremental in opening closed positions. Specific plans will be detailed in a report to Congress this summer, and full implementation across the services should occur by Jan. 1, 2016.

RAND has conducted research on the evolving roles of women in the military and has several experts available to discuss the Department of Defense's policies.

Starting Jan. 1, 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will bring about significant changes in the regulatory landscape for small firms offering health insurance to their employees.

Regulations affecting small firms include “guaranteed issue” and “guaranteed renewal” which require health insurers to offer and renew plans to all enrollees, regardless of health status. Additionally, three-to-one age rate banding will require that the premium paid by the oldest adult enrollee in a health plan will not exceed the premium paid by the youngest adult enrollee by more than a factor of three for the same set of benefits. Such regulations could have the effect of raising premiums for firms with young and healthy workers.

This commentary appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on June 16, 2013.

I love salsa dancing. As a University of Pittsburgh undergraduate in the late 1990s, I often went out to Cozumel in Shadyside for salsa and merengue. I loved the energy, the spinning around, the technique, and the people I met who were from all over the world and had a certain zest for life.

Many years later, as an analyst at the RAND Corp., I live in Doha, Qatar, and work on education policy and development in the Middle East.

You can imagine my surprise and delight when a few months ago, some friends working at Carnegie Mellon University's Qatar campus and I stumbled upon Qatar's salsa scene. Yes, you read that right — Qatar, the country right next to Saudi Arabia, has a salsa scene.

There is reason to be optimistic about Hassan Rouhani's win. He is calm, pragmatic, and more reasonable than most Iranian politicians on the scene. His presidency may provide a new opening for serious negotiations between Iran and the P5+1.

But there is a lot to be cautious about. Rouhani is part of the system. He has served in some of the highest positions in Iran, including within the military and national security establishment.

He is not a reformist. He appears as an alternative candidate when compared to people like former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This is a low bar.

It is hard to ignore the ubiquitous reminders that Sunday, 16th June, is Father's Day in many countries. As with most annually celebrated events, Father's Day is engulfed in a wave of commercialisation that threatens to obscure its true significance. Although it is undoubtedly important to recognise the role of fathers, perhaps the day should be less about celebrating and more about ensuring that we really understand the vital role fathers play in children's lives. After all, research shows that engaged fathers have a positive influence on their children. Educational success, better social development, and higher self-esteem are some of the documented effects on children who have dads involved in their everyday life.

Understanding this, policymakers have tried to increase the involvement of fathers by adapting leave policies after childbirth. As illustrated in the country profiles on the European Platform for Investing in Children (EPIC), many EU countries have implemented parental leave policies that allow both mother and father to take time off from work to look after children. Despite policy changes, however, mothers still take advantage of parental leave more than fathers. This is unfortunate.

This commentary appeared on U.S. News & World Report on June 14, 2013.

The spontaneous protests in Turkey, which began in Istanbul and have spread to over 70 Turkish cities, have raised serious questions about Turkey's political stability and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's leadership.

The demonstrations began as a spontaneous protest against the Erdogan government's decision to build a shopping mall and a replica of former Ottoman army barracks in Gezi Park in Taksim square. However, they have mushroomed into a broad protest that transcends the traditional political cleavage between secularists and Islamists that has dominated Turkish politics in recent years....

The remainder of this commentary can be found at usnews.com.

This commentary appeared in Foreign Policy on June 11, 2013.

An interesting argument has emerged in recent years about the future direction of U.S. foreign policy after Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of it focuses on how interventionist the United States should be. This is an unhelpful way to frame a foreign-policy discussion.

For example, columnist Ross Douthat favorably notes the rise of “populist libertarians” who are, among other things, “more anti-interventionist abroad.” Stephen Walt regularly criticizes what he calls “liberal imperialism” by policymakers on both sides of the aisle whom he sees as too fond of intervening in other states.

This commentary appeared on CNN on June 12, 2013.

Benghazi is back in the news. Late last week, clashes between protesters and militia claimed at least two dozen lives after demonstrators reportedly stormed a pro-government militia base. The latest violence is a reminder of just how unstable parts of the country remain — and how many questions remain unanswered as the United States seek to ensure that there is no repeat of a tragedy that claimed the lives of four Americans last September.

The truth is that something has gone terribly wrong when two U.S. government officers end up making a last stand against overwhelming odds in a terrorist attack on an American diplomatic compound. Last year's attack on the Benghazi consulate, reportedly also a CIA outpost, suggests the United States simply was not prepared to operate in such a high-threat environment and had not reassessed the changing nature of the danger....

The remainder of this op-ed can be found at cnn.com.

This commentary appeared in Christian Science Monitor on June 12, 2013.

North Korea has captured global attention with its provocative behavior in recent months. Secretary of State John Kerry, during an April 2013 visit to Seoul, vowed that “the United States will, if needed, defend our allies and defend ourselves.”

But after issuing threats, conducting nuclear tests, and launching missiles, what will North Korean leader Kim Jong-un do next? The escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula is again prompting analysts to ponder North Korea's next big move, how the United States and its allies would respond, and what Pyongyang might do after that....

The remainder of this commentary is available at csmonitor.com.

The Iranian electorate goes to the polls to select a new president this weekend, but no matter who carries the vote Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will continue to call the shots in Tehran, a pair of RAND experts said.

During a conference call with reporters, Alireza Nader and Dalia Dassa Kaye, said that while Khamenei has not made clear which candidate he is backing, he undoubtedly expects the election of a president who will bow to his will.

“I think Khamenei does really want somebody who is very compliant and follows his orders to a tee and doesn't disagree with him even on small issues,” Nader said.