Despite al Qaeda's increasing use of the Internet to attempt to radicalize and recruit homegrown terrorists in the United States, the turnout has been tiny and mostly inept.
A new collection of essays by experts from the RAND Corporation examines America in the decade since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, focusing a critical eye on the nation's actions since the attacks and outlining changes in strategy needed to improve efforts against jihadist groups.
To inform debate on a new transportation bill being considered, an analysis of literature on the effects of highway infrastructure spending on the economy offers principles for reforming federal policy and programs, as well as ideas for future research.
To break the impasse over how to deal with spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants policymakers should focus on how various waste management strategies address societal priorities related to nuclear energy.
The only scenario where marijuana legalization in California could substantially reduce the revenue of the drug trafficking organizations is if high-potency, California-produced marijuana is smuggled to other U.S. states at prices that are lower than those of current Mexican supplies.
Some view DNA as a useful way for the U.S. Department of Defense to keep track of a large and ever-growing number of people as it executes its mission. However, serious questions remain about the technical requirements, policy and legal ramifications, and costs and benefits of this tool compared with other biometrics.
Legalizing the production and distribution of marijuana in California could cut the price of the drug by as much as 80 percent and increase consumption. While the state has estimated taxing legal marijuana could raise more than $1 billion in revenue, this could be dramatically higher or lower based on a number of factors.
The rising number of terrorist plots in the United States with links to Pakistan—most recently the failed car-bombing in New York City—is partly a result of an unsuccessful strategy by Pakistan and the U.S. to weaken the range of militant groups operating in Pakistan.
The U.S. must determine how best to promote long-term security and stability in the Persian Gulf region while seeking to reduce the risks and costs imposed by its role as a permanent regional power—particularly vis-à-vis Iraq's future, the role of Iran, asymmetric threats, regional tensions, and the roles of other external actors.
Faith-based organizations such as churches and religious relief and development groups can play an important role in the response to HIV and AIDS in Central America, despite the fact that many do not support certain prevention measures such as condoms.
Effective intelligence gathering and a Muslim community unsympathetic to calls to violence have discouraged homegrown jihadist terrorism in the U.S. While there was a spike in domestic terrorism in 2009, the perpetrators were mostly individuals who recruited themselves into the role of terrorists.
Encouraging state and local law enforcement agencies to help enforce federal immigration laws could help identify out-of-status immigrants eligible for deportation, but these efforts come with concerns about the potential for racial profiling, strained community relations, and improper resource allocation.
Congress and the Obama administration should use the upcoming reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to promote more consistent and rigorous academic standards across states, as well as more consistent and relevant teacher qualification requirements.
The American political climate has become increasingly polarized since the 1970s, and the effects on political discourse and policymaking are clear: There is less room for deliberation between the two parties, and public policy decisionmaking is increasingly driven more by ideology than by objective analysis.
Deterrence is a critical feature of cost-effective counterterrorism efforts, but it is not well understood or measured. This simple framework for evaluating the relative value of deterrent measures draws on a growing literature on the role of deterrence in counterterrorism strategy and terrorist decisionmaking.
Will the current global economic recession have long-term geopolitical implications? Assuming that economic recovery begins in the first half of 2010, lasting structural alterations in the international system — a substantial change in U.S.-China relations, for example — are unlikely. This is because economic performance is only one of many geopolitical elements that shape countries' strategic intent and core external policies.
Concerns about the panpoply of possible terrorist attacks are central to the design of security efforts to protect both individual targets and the nation overall. Two questions can be posed to assess the novelty and ease of execution of emerging threats, allowing security planners to both learn from new threats and prioritize.
Shortly after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, RAND hosted a panel discussion with three former U.S. secretaries of transportation. These conference proceedings summarize their comments on which issues should be among the Department of Transportation's (DOT's) top priorities, DOT funding and appropriation, earmarking and transparency in the transportation funding process, and the federal role in transportation policy.
The United States should forge a strategic partnership with Mexico that emphasizes reform and long-term institution building as a way to battle the ongoing drug war and other security challenges that face Mexico.
Improving corporate compliance, ethics, and oversight has been a significant policy goal for the U.S. government for decades, and made more salient by the collapse of financial markets in late 2008. On March 5, 2009, RAND convened a conference in Washington, D.C., on the role and perspectives of corporate chief ethics and compliance officers in the detection and prevention of corporate misdeeds.
Devising policies to mitigate greenhouse gases responsible for climate change is one of the great challenges facing the U.S. Options that are effective and politically feasible must not just be cost-effective but also consider the realities of passing major federal legislation with widespread impacts on U.S. producers and consumers.
The Mumbai terrorist attacks in India suggest the possibility of an escalating terrorist campaign in South Asia and the rise of a strategic terrorist culture. This report identifies the operational and tactical features of the attack, evaluates the response of Indian security forces, and analyzes the implications for the region and the U.S.
While the United States government has historically undertaken strategic reviews and produced numerous strategy documents, these have provided only very general directions for U.S. policymakers. This paper defines an approach to strategic planning and illustrates its application using the example of the critical national security topic of counterterrorism.
This professional memoir, focusing on the first decades following World War II and the onset of digital computing, describes RAND's contributions to the evolution of both the technology and the profession of computer science. From the beginning, RAND researchers were focused on using computers to address real-world problems.
While traditional terrorism-prevention measures seek to prevent all damage by stopping attacks completely, the author recommends also adopting measures that seek to prevent only some of the damage from attacks, but that do so predictably across the many different ways in which they might occur, drawing examples from aviation security policy.
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