Military affairs comprise a range of topics from military personnel and veterans to equipment and facilities—as well as the methods, doctrines, organizational concepts, and technologies that support the military's strategic or tactical goals. RAND provides objective policy recommendations in all of these areas and more.
Research Brief
Explores the future relationship between U.S. and Chinese sea power in the context of historical sea-power rivalries and recent technological developments, and discusses the potential of pursuing maritime security cooperation in the Western Pacific.
Report
The United States should respond to China's increasing sea power in the Western Pacific region by exploiting technology to make its naval forces less vulnerable, while also pursuing regional maritime security cooperation that includes China.
Report
Shows that there is an optimum landing weight that allows for maximum cargo delivery on soft landing fields. This optimum weight is constant and independent of both aircraft ramp weight and the ability of the soil to resist compressive loads.
Report
Addresses the challenges to team effectiveness caused by geographic diversity through an assessment of three modes of virtual collaboration.
Commentary
Unfortunately, since 9/11, the ups and downs in U.S.-Russian counterterrorism cooperation have mirrored the unsteady relationship between the two countries, writes Andrew S. Weiss.
Commentary
In recent years, especially following the economic downturn, states, counties, and cities have looked for ways to reduce costs and maintain basic policing services, leading many to question what the investment in counterterrorism and homeland security has achieved for their jurisdiction.
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.
Commentary
What's the difference if they ascribe this atrocity to a neo-Nazi, radical Islamist, or separatist anti-government ideology? Whatever their motive, they're cowardly murderers who need to be brought to justice, writes Andrew Liepman.
Commentary
With an army divided, any type of foreign intervention would be complex and fraught with extraordinary risk—success would be a long shot. But the loss of a nuclear weapon or fissile material would change the world.
Blog
In 1961, four French generals launched a coup against the government of President Charles de Gaulle and conceivably might have ended up with a nuclear device. In When Armies Divide, RAND's Brian Michael Jenkins uses this unusual chapter in history to discuss what can happen when nuclear states are threatened by revolts, coups, and civil wars.
Commentary
How does Washington signal tenacity to a pugnacious Pyongyang and demonstrate resolve to a jittery Seoul, all without inadvertently triggering an escalatory spiral?
Report
This book examines the security of nuclear arsenals during revolts, coups, and civil wars.
Research Brief
U.S. Army Special Operations Command wants to enhance the contributions of Army National Guard Special Forces and move toward making them a purpose-driven force, that is, organized and employed to take advantage of their particular experience.
Blog
Three RAND Corporation researchers discussed the regional and global implications of the recent flurry of bluster and provocation emanating from North Korea, during a conference call April 9 with reporters.
Past Event
At an event on April 9, 2013, former Defense Secretary Harold Brown will discuss how to align America's interests, values, and defense budget to meet the nation's current challenges.
Commentary
A new model for our nation's special forces could follow the approach used in Colombia and the Philippines, where special forces planned ongoing campaigns that use numerous advisory, civil affairs, and informational activities to address those governments' weaknesses in providing security and ending conflicts.
Report
Intratheater airlift delivers critical and time-sensitive supplies to deployed forces, but is it cost effective to use commercial, rather than organic Air Force, aircraft to supply this airlift?
Commentary
The establishment of a U.S. base in Niger is intended to facilitate intelligence collection and will provide a more complete picture of militant movements in Niger, Mali, and other countries in the Sahel, writes Seth Jones. The United States will share this intelligence with Malian and French forces.
Report
RAND assessed the savings potential of reconfiguring the U.S. Air Force's combat-coded F-35s into larger squadrons and adjusting the Primary Aerospace Vehicle Authorized mix across the Active and Reserve Components.
Report
RAND assessed the savings potential of reconfiguring the U.S. Air Force's combat-coded F-35s into larger squadrons and adjusting the Primary Aerospace Vehicle Authorized mix across the Active and Reserve Components.
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