RAND researchers examine military and national security issues across a broad spectrum — from political dissent and military training to tactical operations and reconstruction efforts — and take a long-term, global perspective. Terrorism, types of warfare, and international intervention are among the many topics RAND explores.
Is powering an ultra-high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle with a laser beam a practical possibility?
Dissuading Iran from developing nuclear weapons faces major obstacles, but it's too soon to give up trying as it may still be possible to influence the outcome of Iran's internal political debate.
Even after the death of Osama bin Laden, al Qa'ida and allied groups continue to present a grave threat to the United States and its allies by overseeing and encouraging terrorist operations, managing a robust propaganda campaign, conducting training, and facilitating financial assistance.
Israel's disappointing performance in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 did not reflect a "failure of air power," but rather a failure of Israel's political and military leaders to properly assess the enemy, set achievable goals, apply an effective strategy and adequately manage public expectations.
This documented briefing presents the results of a rapid review of the funding landscape for complex trauma research in the UK. Recommendations are made about how to strengthen this niche and orphan area of research.
Analyzes how the Army might use a rotational strategy to reduce equipment in early phases of the Army Force Generation cycle, how changes might be applied to units and equipment, and how changes might affect near- and far-term budgets.
The author explores air travel security performance since 9/11, identifies missed opportunities and innovations, and considers potential next steps.
Unstable and violent political environments often give rise to a range of complex problems for peaceful development. RAND Europe reviewed the state of the art in monitoring and evaluation in stabilization environments and found ways to improve practice.
Army children whose parents have deployed 19 months or more since 2001 score lower on standardized tests than other Army children whose parents have deployed for shorter periods of time.
U.S. defense planning is beset with technology-related problems for force projection, obsolescence of forces and concepts of operations, and the need for a new Asian-Pacific strategy. Finding the way ahead amidst fiscal constraints is challenging.
The Air Force is considering upgrades to the KC-10 in several areas. An assessment of options to upgrade the KC-10 weighed the costs and potential benefits of the upgrades against demands in different types of operations and KC-10 roles.
This functional area analysis lays out the tasks, conditions, and standards for the intratheater airlift fleet, taken from high-level guidance, various operational concepts, and recent operational experience and the key variables for later analyses.
This functional solution analysis assesses changes to current U.S. Air Force operations to determine whether a nonmateriel solution could close the capability gap identified in the functional needs analysis.
This functional needs analysis assesses the ability of current U.S. Air Force assets to deliver the airlift capabilities identified in the functional area analysis.
An exhaustive study of Chinese military sources reveals that a future Chinese air force campaign would, under most likely scenarios, seriously test the United States and its allies in a conflict.
Air Force career fields are experiencing deployment strains due to joint requests for forces. A RAND-developed model used personnel and deployment data to assess the supply of and demand for personnel and capabilities to fill these joint assignments.
Testimony presented before the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission on January 27, 2011.
Testimony presented before the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission on January 27, 2011.
Gaps in defenses against chemical and biological weapon agents can pose a serious risk to U.S. military operations. This paper summarizes early expert observations about the threat and possible responses.
RAND developed a prototype handbook to provide humanitarian assistance project staff with an introduction to monitoring and evaluation terms, approaches, and best practices and a step-by-step user's guide for project assessment.
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