The cover story outlines a global agenda for the United States. Painstakingly bipartisan in its derivation, the story advocates "selective global leadership" in foreign and defense policy, combined with "strengthened and revitalized alliances." In practical terms, that strategy means striking a difficult financial balance between short-term military readiness and long-term military modernization. It means expanding U.S. alliances in Europe and Asia and increasing allied capabilities and decisionmaking roles in military operations. It means thoroughly reviewing current approaches to national missile defense and Arab-Israeli peacemaking. And it means taking advantage of unprecedented opportunities to improve the lives of people all over the world. Sidebars about Russia, humanitarian interventions, and Latin America specify how the strategy of "selective global leadership" can apply to these particular areas of concern.
Our other feature story outlines a national agenda for science and technology policy. Steven Popper explains that the new administration will have to juggle several research priorities in science and technology to serve the overall public interest. Greater government attention should be paid to protecting new information infrastructures, managing the capabilities of new genomics technologies, and meeting other governance challenges posed by emerging technologies. At the same time, science and technology research should be harnessed to help confront a legion of continuing national challenges, ranging from aviation safety to energy efficiency to educational improvement.
With respect to energy strategy, we include a news story that discusses some of the lessons the nation can learn from California's disastrous deregulation of the electricity industry. Some of the problems in California were unique to the state. Others were not. Still others promise to get worse for both state and nation unless the short-term lessons can be learned so that a long-term national energy strategy can be implemented.
We at RAND have reason to believe that the strategies proposed here will reach a high-level audience in the new administration. President George W. Bush nominated two RAND trustees to his cabinet: Paul H. O'Neill as Secretary of the Treasury and Donald H. Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. Both were confirmed by the U.S. Senate, necessitating their resignations from the RAND Board of Trustees. Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, also served as a RAND trustee from 1991-1997.
--John Godges