Message from the Editor

An Antidote to Breaking News

In this era of immediacy, with its 24-hour news outlets dependent on “breaking news” and the swiftest and shrillest reactions to it, there is an old-fashioned charm in taking a step back, methodically uncovering the long-emergent patterns, and projecting where they might lead us well beyond the next few news cycles.

This issue of RAND Review salutes the unfashionable approach, first by paying homage to a man who foresaw much about today’s world more than 40 years ago and then by sharing the prognostications of those who aim to follow in his footsteps. Our opening story introduces you to Willis Ware and others who have upheld his tradition. The 11 “issues over the horizon” essays then identify current trends as harbingers of upcoming events, bringing to light several simmering but overlooked challenges and opportunities.

In a similar way, our story on the invisible wounds of war removes the veil from age-old scourges of combat and warns that they will haunt us for years to come. But this story, too, contains a message of hope, because wounds such as these must be exposed before they can become mended.

This entire issue of RAND Review offers the opposite of “breaking” news, the definition of which denotes interruption, disruption, and destruction. In marked contrast, this issue offers “mending” news and its promise: continuation, correction, and restoration.

—John Godges