International trade policies and new technologies facilitate the flow of people, information, and products across national borders, in turn encouraging the integration of regional economies, societies, and cultures. RAND research has investigated how globalization affects and has been affected by policymaking throughout the world.
REPORT
The authors look at four trade policy options for Japan and the United States. They evaluate each option for each country based on its impact on international relations and economic growth and its political and practical feasibility and conclude that the best option for both nations is to move forward cooperatively with the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.
REPORT
Social media was used in the 2009 protests to organize and communicate under government censorship. An analysis of more than 2.5 million tweets discussing the Iran election holds promise for such policy uses as assessing public opinion and forecasting events such as large-scale protests.
REPORT
Globalization, consolidation, information technology, and litigation financing are changing the way legal services are provided in the United States. This paper offers a framework for examining recent and ongoing innovations in U.S. legal services to aid policymakers in understanding the likely effects of innovations and the role of policy in promoting or deterring innovation, and to provide criteria that policymakers might use to decide…
REPORT
This paper presents a theory of natural alliances in which commonalities in political culture are a strategic asset for better coordination and greater predictability among partners. It applies this theory to the case of the US-European alliance.
PERIODICAL
This RAND Review cover story describes RAND's research and analysis of sexual orientation and U.S. military personnel policy relating to the likely repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'
COMMENTARY
It's fashionable among academics and pundits to proclaim that the U.S. is in decline and no longer No. 1 in the world. The declinists say they are realists. In fact, their alarm is unrealistic, writes Charles Wolf, Jr.
COMMENTARY
What is significant about China's acquisitions over the past few years is the change they represent from the negligible amounts in the past, writes Charles Wolf, Jr.
REPORT
Summary for: The Global Technology Revolution: Bio/Nano/Materials Trends and Their Synergies with Information Technology by 2015
REPORT
Summary for: The Global Technology Revolution: Bio/Nano/Materials Trends and Their Synergies with Information Technology by 2015
COMMENTARY
When the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago, those raised in the shadow of possible nuclear holocaust felt disbelief, followed by relief and hope that the end of the Cold War would bring lasting peace, and the end of conflict. And in Europe, at least, it mostly did – but not everywhere, writes Christopher S. Chivvis.
COMMENTARY
The increasing importance of the G-20 summits is testimony to the growing role emerging states now play in managing the international economy. But integrating these newcomers into the global community is unlikely to be straightforward or simple, writes Lowell H. Schwartz.
REPORT
The United States can become more energy efficient and create more "green" jobs by adopting some of the strategies used by the European Union and Australia to rate and disclose the performance of commercial and government-owned buildings.
COMMENTARY
The damage done by the financial crisis now seems to require not a refurbishing job but an extreme makeover. While soul-searching and even self-loathing are inevitable during a crisis, this is no time for America to shy away from a capitalist system that has produced decades of economic growth, writes Krishna Kumar.
REPORT
China is a global actor of significant and growing importance, now integrated into the international system and altering that system's dynamics. The complexity of China's ever-changing global activism raises questions about its intentions and the implications for global stability and prosperity.
REPORT
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…
COMMENTARY
Alabama has made significant economic progress in recent decades, attracting car manufacturers and new industrial development. The state now has an opportunity to address some systemic challenges in education, health care, and workforce development to be competitive in a global economy, writes Melissa Flournoy.
REPORT
This report discussed concerns that the future of the UK's world class research base might be threatened by the decline in modern language learning and calls for a series of measures by Universities and Government bodies to address this danger.
COMMENTARY
In the future, the EU will inevitably have to adjust its system of rules to cope with the evolving uses of personal data, globalization and international data flows, write Neil Robinson and Lorenzo Valeri.
NEWS RELEASE
Organized crime increasingly is involved in the piracy of feature films, with syndicates active along the entire supply chain from manufacture to street sales. While crime syndicates have added piracy to their criminal portfolios, the profits from film piracy also have been used on occasion to support the activities of terrorist groups.
REPORT
This study of historical experience from an economics perspective explores various crises - from the Great Depression to the stagflation and recovery of the 1970s and 1980s to our current economic woes - and suggests the tools policymakers need to address what may be the worst case scenario.
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