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Explores the concept of the long war and identifies ways in which it might unfold as well as the implications for the Army and the U.S. military more generally.
Pennsylvania leaders have an active role to play in coordinating public and private efforts to improve the safety and security of Pennsylvania's extensive and complex railroad system.
Government actions to gain early experience in producing liquid fuels from coal offer major energy security benefits but also raise important economic, governance, and environmental issues, as addressed in this book.
China is not eroding the foundations of U.S. alliances in East Asia and the United States remains the security partner of choice in the region. But consistent U.S. efforts are needed to ensure that the nation retains its influence.
Given the changed threat environment and utilization pattern, presents perspectives for rethinking the Reserve Component of the armed forces, the level of commitment expected from its members, what roles are assigned to them, and their compensation.
The United States' 2006 reversal of its 2002 proclamation that deterrence was irrelevant to most future national security strategies is bolstered by research which shows that deterrence will likely play an ongoing role in U.S. efforts to manage a variety of threats, including both near-peer competitors and terrorist organizations.
Allowing private courier services to deliver items into mailboxes could hamper efforts by the U.S. Postal Service to safeguard the nation's mail. Although the impact of such a change is likely to be moderate, it could diminish public safety and security by diluting the effectiveness of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
In the wake of 9/11, Congress directed the Department of Homeland Security to evaluate whether the U.S. needs a dedicated domestic intelligence agency, separate from law enforcement, to deter terrorism. DHS asked RAND not to offer specific recommendations, but to make clear what should be considered in the creation of such an agency.
David Aaron, a veteran U.S. diplomat and director of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy, has compiled a wide range of writings by Islamic terrorists that offer an unusual window into their mentality. The book, "In Their Own Words: Voices of Jihad," is a virtual encyclopedia of jihadist rhetoric written by the terrorists themselves.
In order to ensure that the U.S. government is able to dispense antibiotics and other life-saving medical countermeasures to large populations under short timelines in the case of a large-scale public health emergency, this report recommends standards for points of dispensing that are designed to apply to widely divergent jurisdictions.
Democratic political reforms can marginalize extremists and undermine support for political violence, but cosmetic reforms and backtracking on democratization can exacerbate the risk of terrorism.
The likely costs and implications of alternative national defense strategies should be assessed through disciplined analyses that examine whether the primary agents of the strategy, U.S. combatant commands, have the ability to meet the strategy's expectations, rather than by merely allowing external events, time constraints, or politics to direct the strategy and inflate its costs.
In testimony presented before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities, Seth Jones discusses how to defeat terrorist groups through a strategy based on careful police and intelligence work rather than military force.
A portfolio-analysis approach that deals explicitly with both uncertainty and differences of strategic perspective allows an integrated comparison of alternative strategies' effectiveness, risks, and resource implications.
Historical examples and the analysis of two modified Delphi exercises augment an examination of approaches to escalation management within the demands of today’s security environment and its attendant threats involving not only long-standing nuclear powers, but also insurgent groups and terrorists.
According to a British intelligence report leaked to the press in 2007, al Qaida operatives are planning a large-scale attack "on par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki." But just how likely is such an attack?
The nature of recent challenges and the types of missions the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has undertaken highlight the need for training DoD personnel in the simultaneous use of different types of tools, military and otherwise.
As the Bush administration's first special envoy to Afghanistan, Ambassador Dobbins helped the Afghans assemble a successor government to the Taliban. His memoir explains why the United States has failed to stabilize either Afghanistan or Iraq.
Current U.S. strategy against terrorist organization al Qaida has not been successful at limiting the group's capabilities. Since Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaida has been involved in more terrorist attacks than ever before, spanning an increasingly broader range of targets.
Terrorism risk analysis needs to be more consistently used as a
means of connecting program activities and decision-making to budget priorities within the Department of Homeland Security. Challenges in doing so stem from terrorism's indeterminate nature.
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