Letter from RAND's President and CEO

Dear Member of Congress:

The September 11th terrorist attack has made three things very clear: (1) terrorism will preoccupy U.S. security policy for years to come; (2) the struggle with terrorism will be long and multi-faceted; and (3) our policy will have to be based on coalitions with foreign powers.

In some ways, the struggle we face now is analogous to the one we waged during the Cold War: That struggle was long, it preoccupied U.S. security concerns, U.S. policy to address it was multi-faceted, and it was firmly based on a coalition of nations united against a common threat. The analogy to the Cold War is apt in one other critical respect. Just as our policy then required research support, so will it now in the war against terrorism. And as much as RAND assisted in the formulation of U.S. policy during the Cold War, RAND is uniquely positioned to provide this assistance once again.

RAND has been in the forefront--and continues to be in the forefront--in research and analysis on terrorism. For nearly three decades, RAND's mission in this area has remained constant: investigate the origins, development, and implications of terrorism; develop a body of theory spanning its various and disparate elements; and examine the policy options available to democratic governments and the private sector to help them respond to the challenges and threat posed by terrorism.

Leveraging and building off this research foundation, RAND can help inform terrorism policy in three key areas: (1) understanding the threat of terrorism: its sources, motivations, objectives, strategies, tactics, and capabilities; (2) analyzing options for preventing, preempting, and countering terrorism both in this country and abroad; and (3) dealing with homeland defense, as it applies both to the United States and our key allies.

To help provide you with some context in these areas, RAND has pulled together a brief compendium of current RAND research on terrorism--drawn from reports, Congressional testimony, and other materials written by RAND staff--that examines trends in terrorism, biological terrorism, technology and terrorism, and homeland security.

We hope you find this "take home" package useful in either your policy deliberations or at town hall meetings or other forums with interested constituents. As always, if you have any questions or if we can be of any other assistance, feel free to call Bruce Hoffman, our vice president for external affairs, at 703 413 1100, extension 5285, or our Washington External Affairs Office, on extension 5632.

Sincerely,

James A. Thomson