Global Security Environment
Overview
RAND analyses help policymakers understand world political, military, and economic trends; the sources of potential regional conflict; and emerging threats to U.S. national security.
Organization
RAND research on the global security environment is conducted within each of RAND's national security research divisions and collaboratively across the RAND research community.
Key Research Centers:
- RAND Arroyo Center, the RAND Army Research Division: Strategy Doctrine and Resources Program
- RAND Project AIR FORCE: Strategy and Doctrine Program
- RAND National Security Research Division: International Security and Defense Policy Center
Special Activities
Featured Findings
Related Publications
Department of Defense Training for Operations with Interagency, Multinational, and Coalition Partners — 2008
The nature of recent challenges and the types of missions the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has undertaken highlight the need for DoD to consider ways to help the military prepare to work with other government agencies, international organizations, private and nongovernmental organizations, and foreign militaries. These challenges require DoD to combine military and nonmilitary means, such as intelligence, diplomacy, and developmental assistance, to advance U.S. national-security interests. Moreover, exhibiting cultural awareness and sensitivity vis-à-vis non-DoD partners is paramount to successful operational planning and execution. To build or bolster local governance, to foster economic growth, and to respond to natural disasters, the United States must also use different types of tools, military and otherwise, simultaneously. It is no small task to synchronize these different tools so that they work in tandem, or at least minimize conflict between them. This report provides suggestions for how the U.S. military can help prepare its personnel to work successfully with interagency, multinational, and coalition partners. The authors found that almost all of the requirements for integrated-operations training can be found in existing joint and service task lists. Current training programs aimed at headquarters staffs need to be revamped to focus on high-priority tasks that are amenable to training.
Future U.S. Security Relationships with Iraq and Afghanistan — 2008
The United States is heavily invested – diplomatically, economically, and militarily – in Iraq and Afghanistan, and developments in these two nations will affect not only their own interests but those of their neighbors and the United States as well. The authors emphasize that the United States must clarify its long-term intentions to the governments and peoples in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the surrounding regions. They describe possible regional security structures and bilateral U.S. relationships with both countries. The authors recommend that the United States offer a wide range of security cooperation activities to future governments in Kabul and Baghdad that are willing to work with the United States but should also develop plans that hedge against less-favorable contingencies. Finally, arguing that the U.S. Air Force could remain heavily tasked in Iraq and Afghanistan even after major U.S. troop withdrawals, they recommend that the United States provide increased, sustained resources for development of the Iraqi and Afghan airpower, because the greater the emphasis on building these capabilities now, the faster indigenous air forces will be able to operate independently and the operational demands on the U.S. Air Force will diminish.
Sustaining Key Skills in the UK Naval Industry - 2008
To preserve its ability to design, build, and support complex warships and submarines, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) will need to preserve and sustain several key technical skills in the maritime domain, particularly those of designers and engineers at various stages of surface ship and submarine acquisition and support. Its current naval acquisition programme, comprising several classes of vessels (such as the Astute-class attack submarine and the Future Aircraft Carrier), has brought forward questions regarding the MOD’s ability to design, build, and support the intended fleet size. Building on prior RAND research, this monograph explores in greater detail the need for and retention of specific technical skills in the UK’s naval industrial base. It investigates the relationship between the demand created by the MOD's surface ship and submarine acquisition programme and the technical workforce needed to design, build, and support those war vessels. The results reveal that, although the MOD has taken into account the need for these skills, its future naval programme likely will have to be modified or augmented to sustain these technical skills in the long term. In particular, the MOD needs to nurture design and engineering skills to bridge current and future gaps as its naval acquisition programme moves forward.
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