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Military and National Security Clients
Sixty Years of Objective Research for the Armed Services
RAND began studying issues affecting the safety and security of the United States and its allies in the waning days of World War II. It has pursued such research continuously ever since, broadening over the years both its areas of analyses and its base of clients and grantors. The hallmark of RAND's national security work is multidisciplinary research that is rigorous and nonpartisan and that informs and is informed by the policy process.
RAND's aid to decisionmakers, its intellectual capital, and its public service are possible largely because of the close sponsor involvement, stable funding, and long-term continuity that federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) provide. In the national security realm, RAND operates three FFRDCs. The oldest, RAND Project AIR FORCE, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Air Force. The RAND National Defense Research Institute is sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the defense agencies, the Unified Commands, and the Joint Staff. The RAND Arroyo Center is sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Army.
The FFRDC relationship enables RAND to work closely with the institutions responsible for our national security, helping them tackle problems that require the sustained analytical attention of many disciplines over many years. Through this continuous connection with decisionmakers, RAND has developed unsurpassed expertise on issues of policy concern and on the technological, operational, and resource dimensions of those issues.
FFRDC funding also enables staff members to provide analytical support quickly when national security policymakers must respond to world events and emerging critical issues. One example was RAND's work on the war in the Persian Gulf, which drew on a large body of research on diverse issues--geopolitical trends in the region, deployment and resupply operations, and air and ground combat. Those areas of RAND research--which U.S. policymakers say helped them anticipate Saddam Hussein's behavior, consider alternative strategies, develop the air campaign used in Operation Desert Storm, and draw lessons from the war's outcome--were available only because they had been supported and refined through years of work with the military services and other government decisionmakers.
The Persian Gulf research is but one example of recent RAND analyses that support policymakers who are charged with preserving U.S. and allied national security. Other RAND studies span the full range of national security research: understanding the changing security environment, maintaining strong forces while reducing costs, and preserving America's technological edge.
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