Every nation has an obligation to protect essential government, financial, energy, transportation, and other critical infrastructure operations against terrorist activities and natural disasters. RAND addresses homeland security and critical infrastructure needs through objective research that assists national, state, and local agencies in preventing and mitigating terrorist activities, as well as in improving disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.
Commentary
The fact is that the United States needs to gear up for the coming era of cyber threats — and start by ensuring its financial flank is not catastrophically compromised, writes Mark Sparkman.
Commentary
Having dealt with outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu and other communicable diseases like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and H1N1 swine flu in 2009, health officials are now far better prepared to detect new diseases early and react quickly to monitor and contain their spread.
Report
Assesses to what extent the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response's Guidelines and associated Toolkit are reaching their intended users and achieving their intended goals.
Commentary
Although official after-action reports are still being compiled, it looks like Boston's first responders and hospitals delivered under difficult circumstances, writes Arthur Kellermann.
Commentary
The risk of overreaching in the name of homeland security is great. But the best and most likely outcome of this latest attack would be a measured security response built around Americans engaging anew in their own security, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.
Report
Testimony presented before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats on March 21, 2013.
Report
The U.S., while worried about a "9/11 in cyberspace," also ought to worry about what a "9/12 in cyberspace" would look like. The consequences of the reaction to a cyberattack could be more serious than the consequences of the original action itself.
Past Event
Declines in energy consumption because of substantial improvements in efficiency and surging production of natural gas, oil, and renewable energy have brought the United States to the brink of energy independence. Join RAND to learn more about shifts in U.S. energy markets.
Commentary
In this fiscally uncertain climate, we should continue to leverage the dual-use benefit of bioterrorism investments by building and maintaining those routine (but essential) public health capabilities that can also be used in response to a variety of public health emergencies.
Journal Article
The aim of this commentary is to discuss both the challenges and the rewards of engaging a public that wants to weigh evidence prior to taking action in an emergency, rather than defer to expert judgment.
Report
Energy security strategies are needed because DoD installations rely on the U.S. commercial electricity grid which is vulnerable to disruption from natural hazards and actor-induced outages, such as physical or cyber attacks.
Commentary
The current debate regarding comprehensive immigration reform offers an opportunity to redesign the worksite immigration enforcement system to achieve more efficient enforcement with better intelligence on where undocumented workers are employed, say Andrew Morral and Peter Brownell.
Blog
The 2013 SOTU address will be remembered for its impassioned call for greater gun control just two months after Sandy Hook. But President Obama's second-term agenda can be characterized by its sheer breadth, reflecting the broad range of policy challenges facing the U.S. today.
Commentary
The European Cyber Security Strategy is remarkable because it tries to co-ordinate policy across three areas whose competences and mandates were formerly very separate: law enforcement, the 'Digital Agenda', and defence, security, and foreign policy, writes Neil Robinson.
Commentary
The White House and a bipartisan group of senators recently unveiled proposals for comprehensive immigration reform. The proposal raises a number of questions, says Peter Brownell: How would success in securing the border actually be determined? Would it mean absolutely zero unauthorized immigration across U.S. borders?
Report
The Swedish Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies asked RAND to investigate cyber-security within national defence and security strategies. The report presents research findings and is of interest to cyber-security practitioners and policymakers.
Journal Article
The authors design and test a model to predict surge capacity bottlenecks at a large academic medical center in response to a mass-casualty incident (MCI) involving multiple burn victims.
Blog
A group of U.S. Senators this week unveiled a proposal to reform the nation's immigration laws, outlining a path to citizenship for most of the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and endorsing an increase of certain types of foreign-born workers.
Commentary
An attack of this complexity would have required months of reconnaissance, planning, recruiting of inside confederates, and training of participants. France's intervention in Mali was used to “justify” an attack that would likely have taken place anyway, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.
Commentary
While the opening of the EC3 at Europol, in line with our first-choice scenario, is very welcome, our study uncovered a range of risks that the EC3 will need to confront if it is to tackle cybercrime in a more coordinated and effective manner, writes Neil Robinson.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2013 RAND Corporation.